Posted on 06/29/2015 7:21:24 AM PDT by marshmallow
German media are reporting on a fiftieth anniversary panel discussion of Nostra aetate, the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions” of the Second Vatican Council, organized by the German Catholic bishops’ conference. It was meant to be a respectful look back and a celebration of good relationship between Christians and Jews in Germany.
But it turned out differently than planned.
Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews, unexpectedly called for the revocation of the newly formulated Good Friday petition for the Jews which Pope Benedict wrote in 2008. Even more unexpected, Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff expressed agreement with Schuster. Bishop Mussinghoff is president of the sub-commission for religious relations with Jews in the German bishops’ conference.
For centuries, the Catholic Church prayed in the petitions of Good Friday that God “remove the veil” from the hearts of “faithless” and “blind” Jews and that they be “delivered from their darkness.” This prayer was taken by some as a sign of deeply-rooted Catholic anti-Semitism.
The revised prayer as part of the liturgical reforms immediately following the Second Vatican Council (now called the “Ordinary Form”) prays rather for the Jews to whom God first spoke, that they may remain faithful to his covenant.
In 2007, Pope Benedict allowed the preconciliar liturgical rite (now called the “Extraordinary Form”) to be celebrated freely again – as part of his attempted move toward reconciliation with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X which rejects the Second Vatican Council. Benedict re-wrote the offensive preconciliar petition, but this version met with protest from Jewish leaders because it prayers that the hearts of Jews will be enlightened and that they recognize Jesus Christ as the savior of all people. This was seen as an expression of superiority and a call for mission.....
(Excerpt) Read more at praytellblog.com ...
Catholic ping!
Just an explanation. This prayer was in the Old Rite, and BXVI rewrote it so it wouldn’t reflect the anti-Semitism that was a feature of its place of origin (Carolingian France, source of what is known as the Franco-Roman Rite that is the basis, even after Trent, of the Old Rite mass).
That said, I don’t know why liberal Jews would care about this - it’s not anti-Semitic, but prays for their acceptance of the Messiah, which is logical in a Catholic prayer. If we want to start attacking prayers, how about the Jewish prayer where you thank God you weren’t born a woman? Curiously enough, lefty feminists seem to have missed this one.
It all depends on your target, in other words.
1960 version by John XXIII (which got rid of the Latin word “perfidious” which did not mean “treacherous” as it does in English but “faithless, unbelieving”.
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 our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
1970 version (prayed in the vernacular Mass):
Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. (Prayer in silence. Then the priest says:) Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The new prayer (2008) as written to be prayed in the Latin Mass of 1962 reads as follows:
Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
They should have stuck with the ORIGINAL prayer used before 1960 even if it used the word “perfidious” and simply explained the word in a footnote.
“so it wouldn’t reflect the anti-Semitism that was a feature of its place of origin”
Was it anti-semitic? Many of the Jews - in regard to Jesus - were “faithless” and some were even “treacherous”.
So are we saying that the Catholic Church used an “anti-Semitic” prayer for hundreds of years?
It was definitely not positive. Actually, read the article. It has many good details about the prayer, such as its origin, the fact that it was the only prayer for which priests did not kneel, etc.
There was massive anti-Semitism among the Northern European states, including France, even though of course the threat to Europe even at that time was actually the Muslims.
However, there were a lot of other factors, including the influence of the highly anti-Semitic Arianism, the usual jealousy of a less cultivated population against a more developed group, etc. This appeared in the Franco Roman rite, which was imposed by Rome on all of Europe, including places such as Spain, which had had a different, more Byzantine rite.
It was retained, along with not kneeling for this one petition, by the Council of Trent.
So there was definitely a need for reform, and originally, when VII began, many people thought that it would deal with just a few anomalies such as this. But of course, it went wild and completely changed the entire liturgy, to the point where I’m not even sure we pray for the Jews anymore. (The “Palestinians” might not like it.)
The prayer was not very well phrased, and the practices that built up around it were not worthy of the Mass.
One is either with Him or against Him.
I’m not buying it. The Catholic Faith taught...until VII...that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. The apostles were hiding for fear of the Jews. The Jews, to this day, do not recognize Christ. They did have the faith and they were blind. The prayer did not pray to hate Jews; it prayed for their conversion. The prayer may not have been PC, but it was the truth.
Once again, VII and its false ecumenism has changed the Church..and not for the better.
did *not* have the faith (ie. faithless).
The prayer was a hard truth that many did/do not want to hear.
The Novus prayer is just what one expects: anodyne, equivocal, euphemistic. And that is putting it kindly.
And why did the Catholic Church change its prayers to appease non-Catholics? Seriously.
The smoke of Satan had entered the sacristy.
Now, of course, it sits on the throne of Peter.
Of course.
This is a part of the same imbecility that calls a refusal to “marry” two men discrimination.
Benedict is simply following Paul. Which means that the Germans are talking through their ...hats.
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