c. 2008 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Next week (March 21), Catholics around the world using the old Latin Mass will utter a controversial Good Friday prayer that calls for the conversion of Jews. Many Jews thought it had been retired almost 40 years ago.
The conversion language had been replaced with a plea that Jews would “continue to grow … in faithfulness to (God’s) covenant.” Then Pope Benedict XVI revived the older version last summer in a bid to allow greater access to the old Latin Mass.
All of the controversy has prompted a larger question: Don’t some Jewish prayers ask the same thing? And does it matter?
Orthodox Jews, after all, resurrected a daily prayer in the 19th century that gives thanks that God did not make the Jews like others, who “bow to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god which helps not.”
It was enough to make Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, in an interview last fall with the National Catholic Reporter, wonder aloud if it was time for Jews to “to look at some of the Talmudic literature’s description of Jesus as a bastard, and so on, and maybe make a few changes in some of that?”
Some scholars say it is important to remember _ before chastising Catholics for the Good Friday prayer _ that all Abrahamic faiths have texts that proclaim their veracity above all other religions.
But others say that perspective does not reflect historical truths, and a comparison is unjust _ perhaps even a bit insulting.
Jacob Neusner, professor of Judaism at Bard College and one of the most published scholars in the world, says that no one _ even Jews _ should be offended by the return to the old ways.
“It’s common for religious groups to pray for conversion of the non-believers,” he says. “There are Jewish prayers that pray that all humanity will recognize the unity of God (in the end) … so if the Catholics are praying for the conversion of Jews at the end of days, this is quid pro quo.”
Under some pressure from Jewish groups, Benedict tweaked some aspects of the Good Friday prayer last month. He removed the age-old references to Jews’ “blindness” and the request that God “take the veil from their hearts.”
Still, the prayer asks that Jews “may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men,” and that “all Israel may be saved.”
Some Jewish groups said the changes still fell short, and didn’t appreciate the comparison made by Cardinal George, the president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops. Retired Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler, a veteran of Catholic-Jewish dialogue, stepped in to try to smooth relations.
“Cardinal George respects the fact that there can be no comparison between passages in the Talmud … which do not now play any significant role in Jewish life or worship, with some texts from the rites of 1962 which were reformed … to express positively our understanding of God’s chosen people,” he wrote in a letter to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish watchdog organization.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said even if there are passages in Jewish prayers that are semantically similar, they are completely different when put into historical context.
“In Judaism, for the 2,000 years we have prayed this prayer, it is not accompanied by inquisitions, conversions and expulsion,” he said. “Christianity, unfortunately, when it talked about conversion, it tried to convert Jews under the threat of death.”
The return of the Good Friday prayer carries with it all of the baggage of oppression, and the specter of the revived prejudice, Foxman said.
Despite the controversy over who prays what and whether it is demeaning, both Neusner and Foxman believe there is no permanent damage to Catholic-Jewish relations. Neusner says everyone will forget about it by next year, and Foxman sees a valuable lesson to be learned.
“You can’t take these things for granted,” Foxman said. “You need to work for respect, reconciliation and dialogue.”
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