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Vatican Rejects Criticism Of New Prayer For Jewish Conversion

February 9, 2008

The top Vatican cardinal in charge of relations with Jews on Thursday denied that a new prayer for their conversion was offensive and said Catholics had the right to pray as they wish.

The Vatican had come under fire from Jewish groups in recent days for changing its Good Friday service to include a prayer urging God to let Jews “recognize Jesus Christ as savior of all men.”

Earlier this week, Pope Benedict ordered changes to a Latin prayer for Jews at traditionalist Good Friday services, deleting a reference to their “blindness” over Christ.
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Cardinal Walter Kasper spoke in an interview in a leading Italian newspaper a day after world Jewish leaders said the new prayer could set back inter-religious dialogue by decades.

“We think that reasonably this prayer cannot be an obstacle to dialogue because it reflects the faith of the Church and, furthermore, Jews have prayers in their liturgical texts that we Catholics don’t like,”

“I must say that I don’t understand why Jews cannot accept that we can make use of our freedom to formulate our prayers,” Kasper, a German, told the Corriere della Sera.

“One must accept and respect differences,” said the cardinal.

In a separate interview with Vatican Radio, Kasper said: “The Holy Father wanted to say ‘yes, Jesus Christ is the savior of all men, including the Jews’.”

He added: “But this does not mean we are embarking on a mission [to convert Jews]. We are giving witness to our faith.”

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday called the revision to the prayer “cosmetic revisions,” saying that the prayer is still “deeply troubling” because of its call to convert Jews.

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