ADL head calls pope's Tridentine Mass letter a 'theological setback'

Published: 2007-07-09

ROME (CNS) -- Meeting Vatican officials two days before the publication of Pope Benedict XVI's apostolic letter liberalizing use of the Tridentine Mass, the head of the Anti-Defamation League said he was assured that use of the old Mass would be limited and not offensive to Jews. But after seeing the text, Abraham Foxman, U.S. director of the ADL, issued a statement July 6, the day before the letter was published, calling it "a theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations." In an interview with Catholic News Service in Rome, Foxman said, "I thought I had been heard, but I guess not." Foxman said the fact that the phrase "perfidious Jews" was removed from the Good Friday liturgy by Pope John XXIII in 1959 and, therefore, does not appear in the 1962 text authorized by Pope Benedict is a good thing. But the 1962 Good Friday liturgy does include a prayer for the conversion of the Jews, asking God to remove "the veil from their hearts" and help them overcome their "blindness."

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