Pope Benedict XVI is reportedly preparing to clarify the Vatican’s position on a controversial Good Friday prayer, a Jewish interfaith official said. The Vatican will issue a letter within a week aimed at easing Jewish fears that the Catholic Church wants to convert them, said the chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC), David Rosen, who has seen a preliminary draft of the letter. He said the clarifications would be made via the Vatican’s most senior cardinal, Tarcisio Bertone.
Last summer Pope Benedict decided to re-allow the use of a prayer book (‘missal’) for the Latin Mass and in February this year issued a revised prayer for Good Friday, remembering the crucification of Jesus. When referring to the Jews that prayer asks that ‘our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts.’ The change was viewed poorly by many Jewish groups, and German and Italian Jewish leaders threatened to scale back their ties with the Vatican.
"If we have confirmation that it is an epistomological prayer and implies no change in Jewish-Catholic relations, then I think we should be content with that and continue dialogue as before," Rabbi Rosen told the JTA news agency. Rosen said that Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, had recently explained in writing that the prayer from the Latin Mass related to theology concerning "the end of time,” not present-day proselytizing. “It has no bearing on Jewish-Catholic relations, and certainly in no way compromises the Church's total opposition to proselytizing," Rosen said.
