Vatican cardinal defends reformulation of Tridentine prayer for Jews

Published: 2008-02-07

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican cardinal defended Pope Benedict XVI's reformulation of a prayer for the conversion of Jews and said he hopes it will not become an obstacle in Catholic-Jewish dialogue. Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews, said the Catholic Church cannot hide its belief that Jesus Christ is the savior of all peoples, including the Jews. But that does not mean the church is launching a missionary effort among the Jewish people, he told Vatican Radio Feb. 7. Cardinal Kasper was responding to Jewish criticism of the pope's new Good Friday prayer for Jews in the 1962 Roman Missal, known as the Tridentine rite, which can be used with greater freedom under new norms issued last year. The pope removed language that spoke of the "blindness" of the Jews, which Cardinal Kasper said was "a little offensive." "The Holy Father wanted to remove this point, but he also wanted to underline the specific difference that exists between us and Judaism," the cardinal said. That difference is that for Christians Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, he said.

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