About 400 rabbis voted last Tuesday to ask the Vatican for clarification of the recent version of the Good Friday prayer.At their annual convention in Washington, the rabbis -- who represent the centrist school of Judaism -- said they are afraid the prayer's wording will set back decades of improvements in Catholic-Jewish relations.
However, they softened their original resolution criticising a Catholic prayer for Jews to acknowledge Christ.
The resolution, adopted last week at the Rabbinical Assembly's (RA) annual convention in Washington, backed away from earlier language saying the liturgy would "cast a harsh shadow" over Jewish-Catholic collaboration and make interfaith dialogue more difficult.
Instead, the RA said it was "dismayed and deeply disturbed" to learn of the prayer, which replaced an even more incendiary version which said the Jews suffered from "blindness" and called upon God to “lift the veil from the hearts” of Jews and to “end the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness.”
In the resolution's sole operative paragraph, the assembly resolved to "seek clarification" of the "meaning and status" of the new prayer.
The prayer is part of the old Latin or Tridentine Rite which was phased out in the 1960s.
The Pope’s decision in July to allow the use of the Tridentine Rite also revived the use of the Good Friday prayer used in this rite.
Last week, as reported,the Vatican authorised a revised version that leaves out the controversial wording, although its message of conversion remains. It still calls for Catholics to pray for Jews to "recognise Jesus Christ, the saviour of all men."
That fact is also troubling to many Jews, who have looked to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council as a milestone in opening up the path to dialogue between Catholics and Jews.
The rabbis group wants to know how the Latin prayer will be read and how it will be translated into local languages.
The news was greeted with outrage in certain quarters, with the Anti-Defamation League saying the Pope had dealt a "body blow" to Catholic-Jewish relations. However, some groups called for greater clarification before responding.
“Alterations of language without change to the 1962 prayer’s conversionary intent amount to cosmetic revisions, while retaining the most troubling aspect for Jews, namely the desire to end the distinctive Jewish way of life,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, in a prepared statement.
“What Vatican II confirmed is the legitimacy of the Torah as a primary access to salvation and as a primary covenant with God,” said Larry Lowenthal, executive director of the Boston chapter of the American Jewish Committee. “It is that affirmation that is certainly lacking in this prayer."
But despite growing concerns over the Pope’s decision, most Catholic churches will likely stick with the more innocuous post-Vatican II Roman Missal, according to Ruth Langer, associate professor of Jewish Studies at Boston College and director of the college’s Center for Christian-Jewish Learning.
“The vast, overwhelming majority of Catholic churches are using the 1970 Roman Missal and will continue to do so,” said Langer.
“That [version] is not a conversion prayer at all.”
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