From a reader:
I recently inherited a 1942 Benziger Bros altar Missal. The canon was modified to include St. Joseph by a past priest. Can this missal be licitly used by a priest, providing he was following the rubrics and calender of the 1962 Missal?
Sure. If you don’t have a 1962 edition, then that old Missal can do – mutatis mutandis – in a pinch. However, depending on the feast, you might have to double check your texts.
That said, make sure your priest and or your parish has a true 1962 Missale Romanum. There are nice reprints which I reviewed here.
Every sacristy should have one or it is not adequately provisioned.
I know that after Pope Pius XII formally proclaimed the doctrine of the Assumption of the Virgin in 1950, new propers were promulgated for the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption.
And they composed some rather bad chants to go with them, sadly.
That would be one instance of potential mutual enrichment – the option to use the ancient Gaudeamus propers instead of the composite new ones, as the ordinary form provides.
Georgetown only has a missal from the 1930’s. They refuse to buy a 1962 missal for use at the Latin Mass. It is “too expensive” for campus ministry. Instead, money must be spent on the NO!
You will need a post-1955 Missal (or Ordo Sancta Hebdominae [sp?]) for Holy week.
JohnMa:
If the TLM group at Georgetown University is in need of a 1962 altar missal, have them get in touch with me, and arrangements will be made. If the “Jebbies” have a problem with it, leave that to me.