World Jewish Congress
Jews Disappointed with Vatican's Changes to Prayer Text
February 7, 2008

The International Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations (IJCIC), a coalition of Jewish groups which includes the World Jewish Congress, has expressed disappointment at the new text of the Catholic Church's prayer for the Jews. The prayer removes language considered offensive to Jews, including a reference to Jews' "blindness" and a call that God "may lift the veil from their hearts," but still calls for the salvation of the Jews exclusively through conversion to Christianity. The new text reportedly says: "Let us pray for the Jews. May God our Lord enlighten their hearts so that they recognize Jesus Christ as the saviour of all men... Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the recognition of truth, graciously grant that with the fullness of peoples entering into your Church all Israel may be saved". Pope Benedict XVI unveiled the new version of the prayer on Tuesday.

"We had hoped that the prayer in the Latin rite would be the same as that of the universal Catholic liturgy in use since 1970," said IJCIC chairman David Rosen. "This new version for the Latin rite appears to be a regression from the path advanced by the declaration of the Second Vatican Council. We urge the Catholic Church to deepen its exploration of the full implications of Nostra Aetate's affirmation of the eternal validity of God's Divine Covenant with the Jewish People."

The chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, expressed his disappointment and said that the Vatican had only made "cosmetic changes" to the prayer text. He called the new prayer text "a serious step backwards" in Catholic-Jewish relations.