The German theologian, Johannes Baptist Metz, once posed the rhetorical question: was it any longer possible to pray "with one's back turned to Auschwitz"? He felt that the immensity of suffering and evil inflicted on the Jews in the Holocaust, for which Christianity itself had to accept some responsibility, had implications for almost every detail of Christian theology and worship. It is instructive to apply Professor Metz's test to Pope Benedict's revised Tridentine Rite prayer for the Good Friday liturgy, published this week. Is it possible to say, "facing Auschwitz" as it were: "We pray for the Jews, that our God and Lord enlighten their hearts so that they recognise Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all mankind"? (Unofficial translation.)

The answer for anyone with reasonable sensitivity to Jewish feelings, not to mention a basic understanding of the history of European anti-Semitism, has to be that the Pope's wording fails this acid test. It is true his prayer replaces one that talked of "lifting the veil" from "Jewish blindness", words which are plainly anti-Judaistic if not actually anti-Semitic. It is also true that the Good Friday liturgy in the Tridentine form is and will be a bit of an exotic rarity in Catholic worship. But why did the Pope reject the ideal solution proposed last year by his own Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, that the Tridentine Rite should use at this point the same prayer as the normative Roman Rite? That nuanced text describes the Jewish people as "the first to hear the word of God" and prays that they "may arrive at the fullness of redemption".

The mystery behind the Pope's decision deepens in the light of the known views of his principal adviser on Jewish-Catholic relations, Cardinal Walter Kasper. He said, in 2001, that "the Church believes that Judaism, i.e. the faithful response of the Jewish people to God's irrevocable covenant, is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises". This is in line not only with the Good Friday prayer in the modern liturgy, but also with the Second Vatican Council's decree Nostra Aetate - which asserts that it is forbidden to say of the Jews that they are rejected by God - and also with the statements and actions of Pope Benedict's predecessors, John Paul II and Paul VI.

Both the Tridentine Rite prayer and its replacement belong to a different theological era, when God's covenant with his original Chosen People was seen as having been superseded by the arrival of the new covenant between Christ and the Church. That left Judaism an empty shell, of no salvific significance for Jews or anyone else. Disrespect and contempt followed, and seemed to be justified by Christian doctrine. Nostra Aetate halted all that, making it tantamount to heresy, for instance, to blame Jews living today for the death of Jesus, and recognised and respected Judaism as still under a covenant with God.

It is urgent that the Pope should clarify as soon as possible that his amendment to the Good Friday liturgy in the Tridentine Rite is not meant to call in question any of that progress. Otherwise one of the most significant achievements of the Second Vatican Council is at risk.

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