The Latin Mass and the Jews

/ July 6, 2007

Rocco’s summary of the contents of the Motu Proprio doesn’t say anything about the controversial Good Friday prayers for the Jews. But let’s take note of a couple of things. 1) It does say there are to be no private celebrations of this mass during the Triduum (which includes Good Friday); 2) priests will be able to have a public celebration of this mass if people request it, in addition to a mass or masses in the vernacular, but you don’t celebrate duplicate Triduum liturgies, so in these parishes the Triduum will continue to be celebrated according to the 1970 Missal; 3) this means that the only place the Good Friday liturgy will be observed according to the 1962 Missal will be in a personal parish, erected by the bishop, at which all the celebrations will be according to that missal–and not many bishops are likely to erect those, especially given the three year trial period called for by this Motu Proprio.

So my advice to my Jewish friends (who were concerned not only about its contents, but about it being released on Shabbat)? Shabbat Shalom.

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5 thoughts on “The Latin Mass and the Jews”

  1. Wasnt the offensive reference to Jews during the Good Friday Liturgy removed before the new rite was introduced? If this is so then the older rite as it will be celebrated will not make the offensive references.

  2. One of the references was removed, “perfidious Jews.” But the 1962 Missal still has prayers for the conversion of the Jews:

    2) For the conversion of the Jews. Let us pray also for the Jews that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, You do not refuse Your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of Your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness. Through the same our Lord…

    If you want to get a better sense of why Jews might be concerned about this, take a look at Tom Drolesky’s Christ or Chaos webpage. He rails against the pope for blessing the Maccabi Games in Rome and against Zionism and against “Naturalism and Judeo-Masonry” (in his “Catechism of the Social Reign of Christ the King”). I don’t think Drolesky will be impressed by the Motu Proprio of “Father Joseph Ratzinger” as he calls him (I guess he’s gone sede-vacantist). But this is the mindset of Traditionalists, from Mel Gibson to the SSPX.

    Alas, it doesn’t look as if Benedict addresses this, except, perhaps, in a very oblique manner, in this paragraph from Rocco:

    At the same time, the Pope says he finds it “true that there have been exaggerations and at times social aspects unduly linked to the attitude of the faithful attached to the ancient Latin liturgical tradition.” However, even in this the onus is placed on the prelates, whose “charity and pastoral prudence will,” he expects, “be an incentive and guide for improving these.”

  3. Does the Holy Father have the right to alter the older form of the Roman rite a la Pius XII and John XXIII, in other words could he remove the prayer for the conversion of the Jews?

  4. He says the pope has the authority to make very drastic changes, including the creation of the new rite. Note in Rocco’s report that no priest, even those ordained for celebration of the 1962 missal, can refuse to recognize the new mass:

    “[A]s a matter of principle,” Benedict tells the bishops, even those priests ordained for 1962-exclusive communities “cannot… exclude celebrating according to the new books.” Said “exclusion of the new rite,” he says, “would not in fact be consistent with the recognition of its value and holiness.”

    But in this case, he’s choosing to go with the 1962 missal as is. The readings can be done in English (rather than the curious duplication of readings in Latin and English that sometimes obtains in Tridentine masses), but that would appear to be the one concession.

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