Yesterday, I stumbled across this blog, the author of which appears to be a "traditionalist" Catholic (perhaps not unlike Hutton Gibson?). I was looking for an informed and rational discussion of the Tridentine Mass issue (for an incendiary version, see here). Instead, I got this:
There is nothing at all uncharitable about these references in the traditional Missal to Judaism. They are milder than the passages of Scripture, for example, where St. Paul refers to the Jews who reject the Messiah and persecuted the Christians, "The Synogogue of Satan."
Instructing others in the Faith and praying for their conversion is a true work of mercy on the supernatural level. Rather than attacking Christians for it, they should be thankful that we care enough to remember them in our prayers and ask for their enlightenment. Unfortunately, for many today Charity is nothing other than making other people "feel good," and not questioning the way they live. This could only come from a faithless people who have no belief in punishment after life. If there is indeed eternal punishment for those who reject Jesus Christ, what greater act of Charity could there be than to pray that people turn to Him in this life?
Nothing uncharitable? We should be thankful? Oy vey. Let's look at the language of the mass.
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.
(chas v'chalila) And then some stuff about our "blindness" and a hope that we'll be delivered from it. Nothing uncharitable. We should be thankful.
I wonder how many Catholics would find it "charitable" and would be "thankful" for Muslims prayers to take the veil from their hearts that they might acknowledge the prophesy of Muhammed and the falsity of those aspects of Christianity that Islam rejects. If there is indeed eternal punishment for those who worship "three," what greater act of Charity could there be than to pray that unbelievers accept the word of Allah in this life ... ?
The same post mentions that, contrary to a number of reports now circulating, the "perfidious Jews" reference was removed from the version of the mass that Pope Benedict is apparently determined to rehabilitate. I've read that elsewhere and on that score I think those articles might be wrong. But this guy had no problem with that phrase anyway as, he claims, "perfidious simply means " 'faithless.' " He says it again here in a section called "The Jew Card Played Yet Again." (cute)
While that may be an accurate literal translation from the Latin, the more common usage is the one found in my dictionary: deliberately faithless; treacherous; deceitful. Nothing uncharitable there, I guess. Nothing hinting at antisemitism there. I guess.
OTOH, we have the many offensive talk-backs at the JPost version of the story, several calling the Pope a Nazi, others claiming that Catholics aren't Christians. That's just plain ignorant.
I think we're going to somehow have to come to grips with the fact that the Benedict of Regensburg and the Benedict of this Motu Proprio are one and the same. This Pope is seeking to protect and reinforce the Catholic Church in what he believes to be its "authentic" form against what he perceives to be an onslaught of multidimensional proportions. It's hard to argue with either his premises or his approach.
Ironically, some of the rituals of this Tridentine Mass harken back to the true "roots" of the church in that they mirror more closely the role of the Kohanim in the Temple who, naturally, faced the Holy of Holies in their supplication and not the congregation. Both "Traditionalist" Catholicism and traditional Judaism have understandably resisted the Protestant trend toward "involving" the masses by facing and lecturing them rather than participating with them in prayer. But.
We Jews tend to take exceptional umbrage at efforts to convert us, in part because of what we've suffered at the hands of "well-meaning" missionaries through the ages but also because our tradition now eschews a reciprocal effort. Many Jewish prayerbooks long ago removed from the Aleinu prayer the words "for they bow to vanity and nothingness" but even those who retain them do not pray for non-Jews to have the veil lifted from their hearts. This just isn't part of our tradition, and so we have little tolerance for those who find it "charitable" to seek to woo us away from our truth. This factor is a dialogue dead-end.
It's still not clear how exactly this Papal edict is going to come down nor what its actual effect will be. I do worry a little about what kind of consequences a renewed campaign to pray for the conversion of the Jews might have for interfaith relations. But I'm afraid that Catholics and Jews and Protestants are going to be too busy fighting a common enemy in the coming decades to bother going at each other all that much. And I also believe that after 2,000 years we're learning to handle our differences better than we once did. Maybe papering them over and pretending they're not there isn't the best approach.
This has been pretty much a stream of consciousness rumination. Can you tell? I expect there will be more of them appearing here from time to time.
