The Church's Mandate to Convert the Jews

Last Thursday, the Jewish organization Anti-Defamation League issued a statement in which it "welcomed the comments of a senior Vatican official that the Good Friday Latin prayer to convert Jews could be removed from the re-introduced Latin liturgy." This statement referred to the position taken by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone who had been reported to say that the substitution of the prayer " would resolve all the problems."

Further, the ADL intimated that "the Good Friday Latin prayer to convert Jews (...) contradicts 40 years of evolving Catholic teachings about the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, and the end of efforts to baptize Jews".

What prayer could cause so much concern in the leading organization that otherwise is engaged in exposing cases of anti-Semitism or denial of Holocaust? Here it is, taken from The Catholic Missal, being a Translation of the New Missale Romanum arranged for daily use by very rev. Charles J. Callan and very rev. John A. McHugh, published by Benziger in 1943:

"Let us pray also for the perfidious Jews, that our Lord God would withdraw the veil from their hearts, that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ. Almighty and eternal God, who deniest not thy mercy even to the perfidious Jews, hear our prayers offered for the blindness of this people, that by acknowledging the light of thy truth, which is Christ, they may be freed from their darkness."

The Church prays that the Jews who failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah would 'be free from their darkness'. Gospel of John demonstrates this attitude of the Jews of the day in the dialogues that they had with Jesus when he stated that he was the light of the world. The Lord concluded "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." (9:39)

St. Paul observes that the majority of his compatriots have been blinded to the truth of Jesus' messiahship. In the letter to Romans he cites prophet Isaiah to describe the state of the nation in the period between the death of Jesus Christ and the destruction of the Jerusalem temple:

"God gave them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day." (11:8)

But Paul has never lost his hope that just as God had given him the grace to see, the other Jews "if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again." (Romans 11:23) Did he remain indifferent to the fate of those that were outside the Church? Far from this, he cried out that his "heart's desire and prayer to God on their behalf is for salvation". He recognized that while they were zealous for God, their zeal lacked discernment. (10:2.3) So Paul expressed his greatest anguish and like Moses, he was willing to lose his salvation "for the sake of (his) brothers, (his) kin according to the flesh". (9:1)

Let us follow St. Paul's example and pray fervently for the salvation of our Jewish brethren that is only possible within the Catholic Church. Also let us remind other Catholics of the Church's unfailing mandate to enlighten those who remain in the darkness.