XMLReader is the "new" interface for parsing.

Just get that from your parser:

XMLReader xmlReader = parser.getXMLReader();

Here you might want to set an error handler:

xmlReader.setErrorHandler(new DefaultHandler() {

  public void error(SAXParseException sex) throws SAXException {
     System.err.println(ex.getMessage());
  }
      
  public void fatalError(SAXParseException ex) throws SAXException {
     System.err.println(ex.getMessage());
  }
      
  public void warning(SAXParseException ex) throws SAXException {
     System.err.println(ex.getMessage());
  }
});