ROME - The most senior official in the Vatican after the Pope suggested yesterday that a highly controversial prayer for the conversion of the Jews could be dropped from the re-introduced Latin-language rite.

Speaking at a news conference, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was asked about Pope Benedict's recent decree allowing a wider use of the old Latin missal, or prayer book, that was phased out after the reforms of the so-called Second Vatican Council.

Jewish leaders sharply criticized the decree, which revived the possible use of a passage from the old Latin prayer book for Good Friday calling for Jews to be converted.

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Bertone, who is secretary of state and ranks second only to the Pope in the Vatican hierarchy, said "we could simply study" the possibility of substituting the prayer. The Good Friday prayer asks that God remove the "veil" from from Jewish heart so that they would recognize Jesus Christ.

Bertone said the prayer that many Jews have found offensive could be substituted with one introduced into church rituals in the 1970s and which makes no reference to conversion of Jews.