Bishops of England and Wales seek change in Good Friday prayer for Jews in Extraordinary Form
November 24, 2015
The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have issued a public request that the Vatican change the prayer for the Jews said on Good Friday in the Extraordinary Form liturgy.
Free eBook:
|
| Free eBook: Liturgical Year 2023-2024, Vol. 4 |
The prayer, composed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, asks God to illumine the hearts of the Jewish people “that they acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Savior of all men.”
Archbishop Kevin McDonald, who chairs the British bishops’ committee for relations with Jews, said that the prayer has “caused great confusion and upset” among Jews. The bishops of England and Wales said that the prayer should be revised to reflect the understanding of relations between Catholics and Jews that is set forth in the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate.
For all current news, visit our News home page.
Further information:
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
-
Posted by: Minnesota Mary -
Nov. 25, 2015 7:51 PM ET USA
Sometimes God gives people what they want when they refuse to embrace His will for them. There is a precedence for this in the Old Testament.
-
Posted by: Bernadette -
Nov. 24, 2015 7:57 PM ET USA
More of the concern for "hurt feelings" which has helped to get our society in the moral mess and morass it is now in! Good grief! What's the matter with these bishops? Truth sacrificed to the god of niceness and feeling good!
-
Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Nov. 24, 2015 6:50 PM ET USA
From Dignitatis Humanae, n. 1: "Religious freedom, in turn, which men demand as necessary to fulfill their duty to worship God, has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society. Therefore it leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ." Both Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae are documents of Vatican II. Is it possible for the Church to be divided against itself? "The gates of hell..."
-
Posted by: 1Jn416 -
Nov. 24, 2015 1:34 PM ET USA
If a group is offended that we pray for their conversion, that does not remove from us the obligation to do so. Jesus Christ came to save first the Jews and then everyone else. We should be praying for the conversion of the Jewish people. The prayer should stay as it is, and better, the Novus Ordo prayer changed to match it.
-
Posted by: ElizabethD -
Nov. 24, 2015 12:14 PM ET USA
There is nothing contrary to "Nostra Aetate" in the prayer composed by Benedict XVI! Nostra Aetate did not make it wrong to pray that all people come to know Jesus Christ and be saved through His Body the Church! We are obliged to hope for that. There is no other name by which anyone can be saved.
