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Vatican to issue conciliatory note by Card. Bertone to Jews over Good Friday Prayer?
This just in:
Vatican to issue conciliatory note to Jews
Mon Mar 17 12:26:06 UTC 2008
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict has approved a conciliatory statement for Jews upset by a Good Friday prayer that many saw as a call for their conversion, Catholic and Jewish sources said on Monday.
The statement, likely to take the form of a letter from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to the chief rabbi of Israel, is expected to be released soon but perhaps not in time for this Good Friday on March 21.
Bertone is second only to the Pope in the Vatican hierarchy, meaning the clarification is coming from the highest levels, as had been requested by the Jews, the sources said.
The Vatican last month revised a contested Latin prayer used by a traditionalist minority on Good Friday, [later the "minority" issue will be repeated] the day marking Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, removing a reference to Jewish "blindness" over Christ and deleting a phrase asking God to "remove the veil from their hearts".
Jews criticized the new version because it still says they should recognize Jesus Christ as the savior of all men. It asks that "all Israel may be saved" and Jews say it keeps an underlying call to conversion that they had wanted removed.
But Cardinal Bertone will say in the letter that the new prayer is not a call for conversion or proselytism and that there was no turning back on dialogue between the two religions.
The letter is expected to stress the concept that all salvation, including that of Israel, is in God’s hands and that the prayer is not a call for missionary activity. [Hmmm…]
Jewish groups complained last year when the Pope issued a decree allowing wider use of the old-style Latin Mass and a missal, or prayer book, that was phased out after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965.
They protested against the re-introduction of the old prayer for conversion of the Jews and asked the Pope to change it.
Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the American Jewish Committee and the International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations criticized the new version of the Good Friday prayer. [This makes it sound as if the change in the prayer for Jews on Good Friday was, definitively, because some Jewish groups complained. I don’t think that is the entire story.]
According to sources familiar with drafts of the letter, it will say that the Vatican still takes as its reference point the landmark 1965 declaration Nostra Aetate (In our time).
This repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for the killing of Christ and urged dialogue with Jews. [Yes… but is that really what this controversy is about? I don’t think so.]
Rabbis around the world had asked the Vatican to clarify the new prayer. Italy’s Jewish community was particularly tough, saying the new prayer was a serious step backward that posed a fundamental obstacle to continued Catholic-Jewish relations.
Sources on both sides said they hoped Bertone’s letter to the chief rabbi would end the controversy. [Yah… right… This will escalate until Good Friday. And it will happen again nest year.]
They said it would say that the Church had no intention of returning to what one source called "the language of contempt" [I reject that the earlier version of the prayer expressed "contempt".] it had used in the past and wanted to stress mutual respect.
The prayer will be heard only by a tiny minority [2nd time] of Catholics who attend services on Good Friday that are held in Latin rather than in their local languages as usual. [Again… this is lousy homework. For example, the Good Friday services in Latin with the Novus Ordo, the revised prayer will not be used. It is amazing that, after all this time, reporters convering the Holy See can seem to get this into their heads. CLARIFICATION: I mean the equation of "Mass in Latin" with only the older form of Mass. I am not talking about the "tiny minority" phrase, which I hear as rather dismissive.]
(Reporting by Philip Pullella, editing by Tim Pearce)
You’re absolutely right Father. This will only diminish after Good Friday when it will be picked up again anew next Lent, just like the magazine coverage every Easter that talks about how Judas isn’t a bad guy and Christ didnt really rise from the dead. It wont really be solved until Christ comes again as the Just Judge so whether the Jews like it or not I will continue to pray for their conversion just as I do for myself and everyone else. Thanks for everything Fr. Z.
Comment by Doug Nesmith — 18 March 2008 @ 11:41 amFr. Z., thank you for addressing this issue prior to Good Friday, as this new turn in the story is only now making the rounds. I would ask you this directly (and anyone else who reads this): if the Vatican, via Cardinal Bertone, issues a statement which disclaims any ‘call for conversion’ or even prayerful hope for present conversion of Jews, and makes this a purely eschatalogical prayer, and does so solely or primarily due to complaints of Jews (including the most liberal types imaginable), does this not mean that we have a true rupture with the past? The original prayer was without ANY question a prayer for PRESENT conversion of every Jew, by asking that the veil spoken of in Romans be lifted and that every Jew join us in recognition of Our Lord. Now we could be told that due to Vatican II (hermeneutic of continuity?) has repealed this attitude, founded on 2000 years of Tradition, in favor of ‘dialogue’ and ‘eschatlogical hope’. In all honestly, would this not constitute a rupture for political and ecumenical purposes? I am truly struggling with this issue and I cannot understand why there is not more pastoral sensitivity here for the ‘tiny minority’ of CATHOLICS actually being affected by all of this.
Comment by Jrbown — 18 March 2008 @ 11:42 amFr. Z., Thank you for addressing this prior to Good Friday, as this purported ‘letter’ is only now starting to make the rounds in the news. I would like to ask you directly (and anyone else who may read this): if in fact Cardinal Bertone’s letter disclaims any prayer for a PRESENT conversion of Jews, and instead makes this entirely an eschatalogical hope for a future, end-times event (and does so due to pressure from Jewish leaders’ complains), do we not have a definite rupture with prior practice if not teaching? There is no question that the pre-February, 2008 prayer for the Jews in the 1962 Missal had a PRESENT conversion hope and prayer that Jews would have the veil lifted and recognize Our Lord with us as Savior. If, as is being reported, Cardinal Bertone’s statement will indicate that since Vatican II (hermeneutic of continuity?), the notion of present conversion and the need thereof has been replaced with ‘dialogue’ and ‘respect’, do we not have a definite rupture with the past, and for political and ecumenical reasons? I am truly struggling with this, and cannot understand why there is not more pastora