"Oremus et pro Iudaeis..."

As noted some weeks ago, the Pope has announced the reformulation of the 1962 rite's controversial Good Friday prayer for the Jewish people... turning yet again to his newspaper to announce it:

The new formulation was published Feb. 5 on the front page of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, along with a brief note from the Vatican Secretariat of State.

The text, made available only in Latin, begins: "Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord Our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men."

It continues: "Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your church, all Israel may be saved."

The new wording removes language some Jewish leaders and groups found offensive, including a reference to "the blindness of that people" and appeals that Jews "be delivered from their darkness" and that God "may take the veil from their hearts."...

The 1970 Roman Missal, revised after the Second Vatican Council, is the one generally used by Catholic churches around the world. It also contains a Good Friday prayer for Jews, which reads: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption."

The note from the Secretariat of State reads as follows:

With reference to the provisions contained in the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of 7 July 2007 on the possibility of using the final revision of the Missale Romanum prior to the II Vatican Council, the Holy Father Benedict XVI has arranged that the Oremus et pro Iudeis contained in said Missale Romanum be substituted with the following text:

Oremus et pro Iudaeis
Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum.
Oremus. Flectamus genua. Levate. [Let us pray. Let us kneel. Let us stand.]
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

This text must be used beginning from the current year in all Celebrations of the Liturgy of Good Friday under the cited Missale Romanum.

From the Vatican, 4 February 2008.

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