Good Friday prayer for the Jews

[6] After World War II, Eugenio Zolli, the former Chief Rabbi of Rome and a convert to Roman Catholicism, asked Pope Pius XII to excise the adjective perfidis from the prayer for the Jews.

Liturgist Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B., wrote: The Church has no hesitation in offering up a prayer for the descendants of Jesus' executioners; but in doing so she refrains from genuflecting, because this mark of adoration was turned by the Jews into an insult against our Lord during the Passion.

[11]The Russian-Jewish historian Solomon Lurie, on the other hand, wrote in his 1922 book on antisemitism in antiquity that this explanation was arbitrary and ad hoc invented since according to the gospels, it was the Roman soldiers, not the Jews, who mocked Christ.

"[12] The French historian Pierre Pierrard recalled being struck in his youth by this failure to kneel as a lesson in antisemitism, as the Jews were consigned to a "moral ghetto".

The 1973 ICEL English translation of the revised prayer, which was to be retained in the rejected 1998 version, is as follows:[20]: 293 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.

The universal permission given to priests by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 to use the 1962 Roman Missal both privately and, under certain conditions, with a congregation was followed by complaints from Jewish groups and some Catholic leaders over what they perceived as a return to a supersessionist theology that they saw expressed in the 1960 prayer.

They considered the removal of blindness and immersion in darkness with respect to the Jews an improvement over the original language in the Tridentine Mass, but saw no reason why the prayer in the rite as revised by Paul VI was not used instead.

In the form in which they appear in the 1962 Missal, the set of prayers in which that of the Jews is included are for: the Holy Church, the Supreme Pontiff; all orders and grades of the faithful (clergy and laity); public officials (added in 1955, replacing an older prayer for the Holy Roman Emperor, not used since the abdication of Francis II in 1806 but still printed in the Roman Missal); catechumens; the needs of the faithful; heretics and schismatics; the conversion of the Jews (without the word perfidis); the conversion of pagans.

[23] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) complained about the document because the 1962 text for Good Friday includes the request asking God to "lift the veil" from Jewish hearts and to show mercy "to the Jews also.

"[24] The ADL called the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum "a theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations, after 40 years of progress between the Church and the Jewish people.

"[25] Monsignor Dennis Mikulanis, vicar for inter-religious and ecumenical affairs for the Roman Catholic diocese of San Diego, responded to the ADL saying that "the Church has not restored antisemitic language."

[28] After having some time to study Summorum Pontificum and its implications for the Jewish point of view, Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the ADL, reiterated its previously-stated position.

"[29] Although the 1962 version does not include the phrase deemed most offensive (Orémus et pro pérfidis Judǽis), it is still criticized by some as a prayer that explicitly asks for the conversion of Jews to the Catholic faith of Christ.

[37][38] The American Jewish Committee (AJC), on the other hand, expressed "its appreciation to Pope Benedict XVI for his confirmation that the positive changes of Vatican II will apply to his recent decision regarding the Latin Mass, which has been reinstated by the Church".

The statement by the committee, after acknowledging the said quote from its president, affirmed: "However we are naturally concerned about how wider use of this Tridentine liturgy may impact upon how Jews are perceived and treated.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a decree issued on Saturday, authorized wider use of the traditional Latin Mass, which in some liturgy contains language offensive to Jews.

"[39][c] In the May/June 2007 issue of its newsletter, the Committee on the Liturgy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published an unofficial English translation of Summorum Pontificum and its cover letter, together with commentary in the form of footnotes and 20 questions and answers.

In 1988, Pope John Paul II gave permission for the Mass to be celebrated according to the Missale Romanum of 1962 only as a pastoral provision to assist Catholics who remained attached to the previous rites, thereby hoping to develop closer bonds with the family of the Church.

[40] In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI extended such permission for wider pastoral application, but he remained committed to "the need to overcome past prejudices, misunderstandings, indifference and the language of contempt and hostility [and to continue] the Jewish-Christian dialogue…to enrich and deepen the bonds of friendship which have developed".

[41] As part of the ICEL English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal, the 1970 prayer was retranslated as follows: Let us pray also for the Jewish people, to whom the Lord our God spoke first, that he may grant them to advance in love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant.

Then the priest says:] Almighty ever-living God, who bestowed your promises on Abraham and his descendants, hear graciously the prayers of your Church, that the people you first made your own may attain the fullness of redemption.

[44] The 1928 revision of the prayer book of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America replaced "all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics" with "all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son.