Church in the World

Pope orders change in Tridentine prayer for Jews

Pope Benedict XVI, in an effort to soothe Jewish sensibilities, has removed references to "Jewish blindness" from Good Friday prayers found in the exclusively Latin pre-Second Vatican Council liturgy. But in revising the text for the recently restored Tridentine Rite, the Pope disappointed many people by leaving untouched a petition that all Jews be converted to Christianity.

The changes, which were officially announced in the Ash Wednesday edition of the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, disappointed many Jewish leaders and dismayed some Catholics.

The Chief Rabbi of Rome, Dr Riccardo di Segni, told The Tablet that the changes were only a "cosmetic revision" and showed "lack of respect" for the Jewish faith. "This is an explicit declaration of [the Church's] desire that the Jews accept Jesus," he said. Rabbi di Segni said it would be a "fundamental obstacle" to Jewish-Catholic dialogue. Rabbi David Rosen, Chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, agreed. He said the new wording was a "regression from the path advanced by the declaration of the second Vatican Council" on relations between Catholics and Jews. And Abraham H. Foxman of the US-based Anti-Defamation League said the prayer remained "deeply troubling" and was a "major departure from the teachings and actions of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II".

Sr Margaret Shepherd, former director of the Council of Christians and Jews and province leader of the UK-Ireland Sisters of Zion, said the document was "an alarming and disturbing backward step. This contradicts the new theology which the Church has been developing with the Jews since [the Second Vatican Council document] Nostra Aetate."

Since the Tridentine Rite is celebrated exclusively in Latin, the Vatican did not provide translations of the revised prayer, which is believed to have been written by its Ecclesia Dei Commission. Fr Michael McGarry, Rector of the Tantur Institute of Ecumenical Studies in Jerusalem, played down the significance of the prayer, saying few people would be using it. "The controversy around this prayer is one of principle more than of practice," he said.

John Medlin, general manager of the Latin Mass Society in Britain, said he thought the new prayer achieved a middle ground between the perceived anti-Semitism of the Tridentine Rite and the relativism that had made Catholics reluctant to pray for the conversion of anyone of another faith. "This puts the idea of the conversion of the Jews within the wider idea of the conversion of all people," he said.

The revised prayer removes references to "the blindness of that people", that they "be delivered from their darkness" and that God "may take the veil from their hearts". And already in 1959 Pope John XXIII had removed a reference to the "perfidious Jews". However, the post-Vatican II reformed Roman Rite re-drafted the Good Friday prayers, which also included prayers for the conversion of "heretics and schismatics" (Protestants and Orthodox) and "pagans" (all non-Christians).

In reference to the Jews, the English translation of the Missal of 1970 reads: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption."

Rabbis di Segni and Rosen said that Jewish groups "had hoped the prayer in the [Tridentine] rite would be the same as that of the universal Catholic liturgy in use since 1970".