Italy's Jewish leaders have said they will refuse take part in traditional joint Jewish-Catholic prayers in January because of the re-introduction last Easter by Pope Benedict XVI of a "prayer for the conversion of the Jews" as part of the revived Tridentine mass. Rabbi Giuseppe Laras, head of the Italian Rabbinical Assembly, made the announcement at a conference on inter-religious dialogue held at the Italian Parliament.
He said although the Vatican had explained that the Good Friday prayer was not intended to offend Jewish sensitivities, Italian Jews remained "dissatisfied".
Rabbi Laras, former chief rabbi in Milan, Ancona and Livorno, said the decision not to take part in the common day of prayer on 17 January was not linked to controversy over plans for the beatification of Pius XII, the wartime pontiff accused by critics of having failed to speak out in defence of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
He said Jews had a right to criticise Pius XII, but beatification and canonisation was "a matter for the Church".
Vatican officials noted that last month (October) Rabbi David Rosen, head of the International Jewish Committee, who met Pope Benedict, said he was "grateful" for Vatican explanations that the Good Friday prayer was "in no way intended as an act of proselytism toward the Jews".
The relevant passage in the Missale Romanum reads: "We pray for the Jews, that the Lord may illuminate their hearts and that they may recognise Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all men".
Tullia Zevi, former head of the Italian Jewish community, said although Rabbi Laras had rightly expressed Jewish "disappointment and regret", the Jewish-Christian dialogue "must continue and will continue".
She pointed out that the phrase "oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis" had been removed from the prayer.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation of Bishops, said he was "surprised" by Rabbi Laras' remarks "given the very good state of our relations and the many gestures of good faith toward our "elder brothers" made by the Pope".
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(Source: TTO)