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, ...

There is recognisably such a thing as Catholic fundamentalism. It might be defined, by reference to Protestant and Islamic parallels, as believing in a strict and literal interpretation of basic texts and leaving no room for development. When the new head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, told Catholic journalists recently that it was not the role of the Catholic press ...

Laïcité is not an easy concept to translate from French to English, nor is it easy to interpret the argument now raging in France about its implications. It refers to the supposedly secular character of French public life, and to the maintenance of a proper distance between Church and State. President Nicolas Sarkozy has stirred up fears, particularly on the French Left, that he wishes to modernise the ...

Disraeli is supposed to have coined the phrase "lies, damned lies and statistics", which would, according to a recent report, be an apt comment on the accuracy of Catholic Mass attendance figures in England and Wales. Research by the Catholic sociologist, Dr Tony Spencer, indicates the true drop in figures over the last 10 years is more than half a million, compared with a mere 72,000 in official figures ...

Profound questions are raised by the way Cardinal Franc Rodé, head of the Vatican department that deals with religious orders, admonished the Society of Jesus for failing to "think with the Church". In a sermon at the start of their 35th General Congregation in Rome, Cardinal Rodé told the assembled Jesuits of his "sadness and anxiety" at the Society's recent record, urging greater ...