German Catholics and Jews are pushing the pope to withdraw his modified Good Friday mass, which urges the conversion of Jews. The General Rabbinical Council of Germany issued a statement Wednesday saying the German-born Pope Benedict XVI 's decision has damaged Jewish-Catholic relations here.
Though they admit the chances of influencing the pope are slim, they expressed hope for "a satisfactory solution in the near future."
The statement followed an official protest on Feb. 29 of the Jewish-Christian Circle of the Central Committee of German Catholics, an independent group that includes rabbinical council president Rabbi Henry Brandt.
Separately, two prominent German Jews announced last week they would not attend Germany's annual Catholic convention in May. Rabbi Walter Homolka, rector of the Abraham Geiger Reform rabbinical college in Potsdam, and Micha Brumlik, a professor at the University of Frankfurt, said they wanted to draw attention to the issue.
Other rabbis -- including Jonathan Magonet, president of the Leo Baeck College in London -- were reportedly asked to replace them as speakers at the convention, and refused.
"It is very rare for a pope, for an infallible person, to renounce a decision because he had a bad day," Homolka said in a telephone interview.
The protest has garnered attention in Rome.
Homolka said Cardinal Waltar Kaspar, who heads the Vatican commission for religious relations with Jews, will address the issue publicly on Thursday, and again when Israeli rabbis visit Rome next week.
Chances of effecting change are slim, said Brandt, who will attend the Catholic convention. "One has to be a realist, but we have to work in that direction anyway."
Brandt said he would address the topic at the convention. "We respect the decisions of those colleagues to withdraw but I feel it's the wrong signal at the moment," he said.
"I think that this protest and others will get a clarification from the pope," Michael A. Signer, professor of Jewish Thought and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, said in an e-mail to JTA.
Signer said that while the German interfaith group has a strong sense of Germany's special relationship with Jews, "the German pope seems to act first and then demonstrate the proper attitude."
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