Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., April 29, 2008 Nisan 24, 5768 | | Israel Time: 04:08 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Rosner's Domain
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Advertising
Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File
Last update - 22:22 10/04/2008
Vatican cardinal: Jews too 'emotional' over Good Friday prayer
By Reuters
Tags: Catholics, Good Friday 

Jews reacted irrationally and emotionally to a prayer that many regarded as a call for their conversion, a Vatican cardinal said on Wednesday, assuring them the Church's policy of respect had not changed.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, in charge of relations with Jews, said the prayer used by an "extremely small" number of traditionalists on Good Friday simply expressed the Catholic view that Christ is the savior of all humankind.

It was not a step backwards in the Church's respect for Jews, he said, although he acknowledged the controversy was a sign of how difficult the interfaith dialogue can sometimes be.
Advertisement
"The reactions from Jews are in large part not motivated in a rational way, but in an emotional way. But one should not write them off too quickly as being caused by hypersensitivity," Kasper wrote in Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.

In February the Vatican revised a contested Latin prayer used by traditionalist Catholics on Good Friday, the day marking Jesus Christ's crucifixion, removing a reference to Jewish "blindness" over Christ and deleting a phrase asking God to "remove the veil from their heart."

Jews criticized the new version because it still says they should recognize Jesus Christ as the savior of all men. It asks that "all Israel may be saved" and Jews said it kept an underlying call to conversion that they had wanted removed.

Kasper said he realized that for many Jews, the collective memory of forced conversions in past centuries "is still alive."

"The new formulation of the prayer ... doesn't say anything truly new, but just expresses what until now was assumed to be obvious," Kasper wrote in the Italian-language article.

The reference to saving Israel was "eschatological", a reference to a branch of theology dealing with the destiny of all humanity at the end of the world.

Kasper said the Catholic Church, unlike some evangelical Churches, did not have an institutionalized directive to convert Jews although Catholics are always encouraged to express their faith openly while showing respect.

Last week, the Vatican issued a statement on the prayer saying it "in no way intends to indicate a change in the Catholic Church's regard for the Jews."

The Vatican said the Church's relations with Jews were still based on the 1965 Second Vatican Council statement Nostra Aetate, which repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for Christ's death and began dialogue.

"One must always be mindful that dialogue between Jews and Christians will remain, by its nature, always difficult and fragile and that it demands a great amount of sensitivity from both sides," Kasper wrote.

Next week in the United States, Pope Benedict will meet American Jewish leaders and make a brief visit to the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan.

Related articles:
  • Vatican rejects criticism of new prayer for Jewish conversion
  • Rebel Catholics: Pope caved on prayer to convert Jews
  • Pope to visit N.Y. synagogue led by Holocaust survivor

    More Jewish World news and features
    • Bookmark to del.icio.us  
     
    Obscene gestures
    Alleged 'Heil Hitler' comment lands German lawyer Horst Mahler in court
    AMOS-3 video
    Israel's sophisticated new communications satellite launched into orbit.
      1.   Vatican too `stupid` over Good Friday prayer 22:15  |  Gee 09/04/08
      2.   VATICAN & EMOTION 22:27  |  Kooky Dennt 09/04/08
      3.   Too emotional 22:51  |  Moshe 09/04/08
      4.   I agree some people have been too......... 22:53  |  Deborah 09/04/08
      5.   Irrationality 23:20  |  Gideon 09/04/08
      6.   Too sensitive? 23:24  |  Sam 09/04/08
      7.   The Vatican`s response is concerning 23:24  |  Mary 09/04/08
      8.   Mr Cardinal you single us out, you have inquisitions against us 23:51  |  x-ray 09/04/08
      9.   Why they dont prey for the conversion of other religious groups? 00:06  |  Saint Peter 10/04/08
      10.   PRAYER SHOULD SAY:ALL NATIONS SHOULD RECOGNIZE TRUE JEWISH MESIAH 00:07  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 10/04/08
      11.   I will agree, gee 00:12  |  hollingsworth 10/04/08
      12.   Christ can be the saviour of `all men` as long as... 01:09  |  Edith 10/04/08
      13.   Heaven is angry at the ignoramuses & Co. 01:10  |  Emasculate Conceptio 10/04/08
      14.   #1 01:13  |  Edith 10/04/08
      15.   Too emotional 01:16  |  Joe 10/04/08
      16.   Too hypocritical, actually 01:30  |  Aaron Levitt 10/04/08
      17.   savyor of all men 01:42  |  Shmuelshachor 10/04/08
      18.   Good Friday prayer 01:48  |  An Israeli 10/04/08
      19.   Trite quibble, it seems, compared to Islamic totalitarianism! 02:20  |  Akiva P 10/04/08
      20.   Catholics a little touch about Hagee 02:27  |  Aphemia 10/04/08
      21.   God who removes the idolatry of worshiping a human 02:29  |  Atle 10/04/08
      22.   Hollingsworth 03:04  |  Gary 10/04/08
      23.   for Aphemia`s information 03:31  |  hollingsworth 10/04/08
      24.   Atle, how do you reconcile the worship of christ with,... 03:52  |  Akiva P 10/04/08
      25.   I am sought of them 03:56  |  roger wallace 10/04/08
      26.   yeah, 1500 years of persecution will do that to a person 04:42  |  Jon 10/04/08
      27.   Don`t Jews have the same thing? 04:44  |  Jon 10/04/08
      28.   Cardinal Kasper is living in darkness 04:47  |  Frank 10/04/08
      29.   The Catholic Church and the darkness 05:01  |  Frank 10/04/08
      30.   I Have to Agree With the Cardinal 05:11  |  MIKE 10/04/08
      31.   no man comes to Father [Yahweh] except through Christ 05:23  |  marilyn 10/04/08
      32.   Re; #10 VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 05:28  |  Yosemite 10/04/08
      33.   The true darkness of the Catholic Church 05:43  |  Frank 10/04/08
      34.   how many Jews died at the hands of the Roman Church from Jersu 05:55  |  r 10/04/08
      35.   how many Jews died at the hands of the Roman Church from Jersu 05:55  |  r 10/04/08
      36.   Oh, so that`s where they got it 05:55  |  hollingsworth 10/04/08
      37.   but Muslims arent over Fitna and comics? hmm 05:57  |  David 10/04/08
      38.   There is Only One God/Allah 06:05  |  Just Facts 10/04/08
      39.   Let me try again 06:08  |  hollingsgold 10/04/08
      40.   Jews respect the legitimacy of other religions, Catholics dont. 06:12  |  Joe 10/04/08
      41.   Why don`t we complain about the evangelicals? 07:18  |  Charlie Hall 10/04/08
      42.   mike Jews do not look for conversions know your facts better pls 07:53  |  arthur 10/04/08
      43.   Too emotional or Smart? 08:04  |  Ori 10/04/08
      44.   SPOT ON CHARLIE #29 10:31  |  wally 10/04/08
      45.   An anti-missile shield for the Vatican? 10:39  |  Natallie Durson 10/04/08
      46.   # 26 Just Facts 10:40  |  wally 10/04/08
      47.   To Joe # 28 I think you have lost the plot 10:47  |  wally 10/04/08
      48.   Sensitivity has never been the strong point of Mr. Ratzinger 10:59  |  Cornelia 10/04/08
      49.   #28 joe 10:59  |  catholic 10/04/08
      50.   Vatican 11:02  |  Italiano 10/04/08
      51.   In any other context you would call it brainwashing 11:11  |  x-ray 10/04/08
      52.   Good Friday 13:05  |  Naim S. Mahlab 10/04/08
      53.   Emotions... 13:20  |  Gabe 10/04/08
      54.   ori 36 14:24  |  potobac 10/04/08
      55.   #39 the Durson Person 15:01  |  Gideon 10/04/08
      56.   This whole matter is nothing but a storm in a teapot 15:15  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/04/08
      57.   The seed 15:21  |  American Christian 10/04/08
      58.   Mr. Mahlab on murdering of Jews 15:24  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/04/08
      59.   r from nowhere speaks as an unknowledgable protestant 15:26  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/04/08
      60.   Aphemia on hagee and the great whore 15:36  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/04/08
      61.   Aphemia on hagee and the great whore 15:37  |  Yaakov Sullivan 10/04/08
      62.   Sullivan as a Whore of Hate 16:10  |  B 10/04/08
      63.   The Pope must deal with his fundamentalists, which Jews don`t do 16:18  |  Tosefta 10/04/08
      64.   "Too Emotional?" 16:39  |  JordanisPalestine 10/04/08
      65.   To Saint Peter # 9 16:41  |  JordanisPalestine 10/04/08
      66.   The Vatican 17:17  |  Michael T 10/04/08
      67.   What about Muslims too emotional???? 17:25  |  David 10/04/08
      68.   They`re praying to a false G-d anyway... 18:24  |  nunya 10/04/08
      69.   Gideon .. .. If you can`t follow this reply, don`t bother to repy 18:25  |  Natallie Durson 10/04/08
      70.   #17 Shmuelshachor 18:32  |  JordanisPalestine 10/04/08
      71.   To 26 and 34 18:35  |  JordanisPalestine 10/04/08