Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - It is since last July, following the publication of Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, that polemic among Jews and Catholics has resumed with regard to a new formula of the prayer found in the old Good Friday Rite, known as Oremus et pro Iudaeis.
What are the reasons for the dispute? The old text in Latin invited those present to pray for the Jews “that our God and Lord will remove the veil from their hearts, so that they too may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ ”. The prayer continued as follows: “Almighty, eternal God, who dost not withhold thy mercy even from Jewish unbelief, heed the prayers we offer for the blindness of that people, that they may acknowledge the light of thy truth which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness: through the same Lord Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen”. This was the old text which the Pope recently changed to: “that our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, Saviour of all mankind ”; and the prayer to: “ Almighty and eternal God, whose desire it is that all men might be saved and come to the knowledge of truth, grant in your mercy that as the fullness of mankind enters into your Church, all Israel may be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen”.
Why the change? According to the periodical La Civiltà Cattolica, “In the present spirit of dialogue and friendship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, the Pope deemed it right and opportune to make this change, to avoid any expression that might cause even the slightest offence or displeasure to the Jews”. In fact the words of the old formula which to many - both Jews and Catholics - seemed offensive, were especially 'unbelief' and 'blindness'. Both absent in the new formula.
Thus, if we look closely, the new prayer for the Jews in the old Rite, rather than impoverish, enriches the sense of the prayer in the modern Rite. In an ever living liturgy like the Catholic liturgy, both Rites, old and modern, can exist side by side. A side by side existence which, in the future, could lead to one Roman Rite, using the best of both. A thought already expressed in 2003 by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, when he wrote a letter to a leading member of Lefebvre traditionalism, German philologist Heinz-Lothar Barth.
Naturally, the new formula of the prayer is only valid for the old Rite, and therefore in the great majority of Catholic churches on Good Friday the prayed used was that of the Paul VI Missal of 1970, according to which, as we know, the prayer is that the Jewish people "the first to hear to word of God, may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant”
If this is the Catholic position, what do the Jews say? While from Rabbinic world in Europe there came many fierce protests against the Pope's initiative, the American Jewish world showed itself to be far more reasonable. It is enough to mention Jacob Neusner, the Rabbi so often cited by Benedict XVI in his book “Jesus of Nazereth”. Neusner, with calm and correct reasoning affirmed that “Israel prays for the gentiles. So the other monotheistic religions, including the Catholic Church, have the right to do the same and no need feel offended. Any other attitude towards the gentiles would deny the latter access to the One God revealed to Israel in the Torah”. Catholic prayer demonstrates the same altruist spirit which characterises the faith of Judaism.
The Jewish prayer cited by Neusner is recited in the synagogue three times every day, not once a year like the Catholic prayer. The text is taken from the Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire (London, 1953), a volume which contains an English translation of a prayer for the conversion of the gentiles. In this text “Israel thanks God for having made it different from other nations and asks that the world may be brought to perfection when the whole of humanity will invoke the name of God kneeling down before Him”. The prayer which asks for the conversion “of all the impious of the earth” has a parallel in a part of the Eighteen Blessings which ask God to sweep away “the reign of arrogance”. In conclusion, when Israel gathers in prayer, it asks God to “illuminate the heart of the gentiles”. And concludes: “Jewish and Christian proselytising prayers have in common the same eschatological spirit and they keep the gates of salvation open for all men and women”.
Perhaps this is why the Holy See Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was able to say recently in Baku (8 March 2008) that “the Catholic Church asks the Jews for reciprocity on questions which might cause friction between the two faiths, in particular with regard to the controversial Good Friday prayer for the Jews contained in the new Mass in Latin, since there are prayers on both sides which could or should be altered”. And probably referring to the statement by Neusner, he continued: “many Jews understand the real sense of the prayer, which, we stress, concerns one precise part of the Catholic world, which has been helped to take a great step forward, precisely with regard to the Jews and the old prayers”. This prayer, the Secretary of State concluded, concerns only a part of the Catholic world: it is not the great Good Friday prayer of the whole Catholic world. And explanations of certain illustrious Rabbis - he underlined - can take the edge off certain recent reactions”. (5 - to be continued) (Agenzia Fides 26/3/2008; righe 64, parole 908)
