The Pope has rewritten the Good Friday prayer for the “conversion” of the Jewish people in the old Latin rite in an attempt to avoid accusations of anti-Semitism.
But the new version of the prayer still contains a plea for the “salvation” of Israel and asks God to “enlighten” the hearts of Jewish people so that they acknowledge Jesus Christ as saviour.
It is likely to be criticised by leaders of the Jewish faith because of its echoes of “supercessionism” - the doctrine that the “new” covenant made with the gentiles through the death and resurrection of Christ supersedes the “old” covenant made with the Jewish people at Sinai.
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The controversial Good Friday prayer, which appears in the 1962 Latin Missal, was quietly put to one side by most Catholics in the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which rendered the Mass into the vernacular.
But it has become the subject of debate again because the Pope has recently authorised the old rite for wider use.
The publication of the new prayer could not come at a more sensitive time. Three weeks after Good Friday, on 21 March this year, the Pope is to visit the United States where he will be met by a delegation of representatives of several faiths, including leading members of America’s Jewish community.
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The old prayer, from which the phrase “faithless Jews”, from the Latin “perfidis” had already been deleted in 1960, read: “Let us pray also for the Jews: that almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts; so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us pray. Let us kneel. Arise. Almighty and eternal God, who dost also not exclude from thy mercy the Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
The new prayer reads: “We pray for the Jews. That our God and Lord enlighten their hearts so that they recognize Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all mankind. Let us pray. Kneel down. Arise. Eternal God Almighty, you want all people to be saved and to arrive at the knowledge of the Truth, graciously grant that by the entry of the abundance of all peoples into your Church, Israel will be saved. Through Christ our Lord.”
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Rabbi David Rosen, chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, said: “It is a disappointment.
“While I appreciate that the text avoids any derogatory language towards the Jews, it is regrettable that the prayer explicitly aspires for Jews to accept the Christian Faith, as opposed to the text in the current universal liturgy that prays for the salvation of the Jews in general terms.
“All I can hope for is that through further dialogue, the full implications of the Second Vatican Council’s affirmation of the eternity of the Divine Covenant with the Jewish People might lead to a deeper understanding of the value of Torah as the vehicle of salvation for the Jewish People.”
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David Gifford, chief executive of the Council of Christians and Jews, said: “I am saddened. They could have gone much further and built on the work of the Second Vatican Council.”
He said this will add to the “suspicion and dismay” already created by the restoration of the Tridentine Rite, which can now be celebrated without permission of a bishop. “I am extremely sad that another opportunity has been missed.”