Catholics & Jews - a step backwards

I am more than old enough to remember in detail the liturgy of my church before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Some of it was cumbersome, some of it very repetitive, and very few people could understand the Latin they were hearing. But there was an ageless beauty to it that younger Catholics do not experience today. (Perhaps an exception is the widespread appreciation of Gregorian Chant among classical music lovers.)

Despite the centuries-old love of the beauty of the old rite, the "new Mass" that came out of Vatican II was widely appreciated across the Catholic world. I still remember the excitement of the pre-Christmas "First Sunday of Advent" in 1964. That is when major parts of the Latin Rite Mass were said or sung for the first time in centuries in people's own languages.( I had been ordained five months earlier and I remember how exuberant I was that day.)

With the language changes came a thorough reform of the whole rite, words as well as actions. And the worst of the past was removed. The "surgery" included a prayer chanted every Good Friday -- in between a prayer for "heretics and schismatics" and one for "pagans" -- that began with these words: "Oremus pro perfidis Judaeis... Let us pray for the perfidious Jews..." It went on to ask God to remove the Jews' "blindness" and "remove the veil from their hearts."

With the sea change in Catholic-Jewish relations that came out of Vatican II, things got better and better.

But now this: Pope Benedict XVI (who as Cardinal Ratzinger had lamented the Vatican II decision that had the priest face the people at Mass) has been trying to make the "old" Latin Mass more available to traditionalists. (The new Vatican II rite--the norm for over 40 years now--can still be done in Latin anywhere, but traditionalists want the old rite exactly as it was fixed by Pope Pius V back in 1570.)

The prayer for "the perfidious Jews" remains buried, thank God, but Pope Benedict has approved a new version of the prayer that says: "“Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.”

I cannot imagine a Jew who would not be upset, Conservative Judaism’s international assembly of rabbis will be gathering in Washington this week. There they will vote on a resolution saying they are “dismayed and deeply disturbed to learn that Pope Benedict XVI has revised the 1962 text of the Latin Mass, retaining the rubric, ‘For the Conversion of The Jews.’ ” The group is also in contact with leaders from the Reform and Reconstructionist movements about making a joint statement on the issue.

Allow me a final bit of Latin, an incisive saying of old :" Ecclesia semper reformanda -- the church is always in need of reform." I am convinced that Rabbi Jesus would agree.