No Contentment for the Jews

Several articles have appeared over the course of a couple of weeks over the Vatican's decision to modify the Good Friday prayer according to the 1962 Tridentine Latin Rite that referred to the Jews as blinded and in darkness. The new unofficial modification shall be as follows:

"Let us also pray for the Jews, that God our Lord should illuminate their hearts, so that they will recognize Jesus Christ, the Savior of all men.

"Let us pray. Let us genuflect. Rise.

"All-powerful and eternal God, you who wish that all men be saved and come to the recognition of truth, graciously grant that when the fullness of peoples enters your Church all of Israel will be saved.

"Through Christ Our Lord, Amen."

The change has caused disappointment and frustration among the Jews saying that this move has dramatically set back the efforts of Pope John Paul II and other previous popes on reaching reconciliation with the Jewish faith.

The Vatican fired back by saying that the changes were 'minor' and should not offend anyone. Non -Catholics should respect the freedom of the Church to formulate their own prayers. Of course, the resulting response is more of unjustified anger.

An article from The Jewish Daily Forward gives us the confirmation why the Church's inter religious dialogue is on a wrong footnote:

The dialogue arguably reached its high point in April 1986, when Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome, the first pope ever to do so. Addressing the congregation, he declared that God’s covenant with the Jews was “irrevocable.” By that, church officials explained, he meant that God’s choosing of the Jews, giving them the Law and promising eternal life was, regardless of past church teaching, intact and unbreakable. Judaism was a living religion, not just a precursor to Christianity.

The pope went on to say that belief in Jesus “can never be the object of exterior pressure.” He said that in future Catholic-Jewish relations, “we shall each be faithful to our own sacred commitments.” That, church officials said, meant that the age-old Catholic mission to “save” the Jews by converting them was ended. The Jews had their own path to redemption.

Even in August 2000, when the church’s chief theologian, the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, called for renewed Catholic efforts to missionize other faiths, church officials continued to say that Jews were exempt. The cardinal’s declaration, “Dominus Jesus,” argued at length that the Catholic Church was the only vehicle to divine salvation. Apologists explained that Judaism was, of course, an exception to the rule.

Now that same cardinal, newly renamed Pope Benedict XVI, has revived the conversion doctrine that has been the source of so much Jewish pain and fear through the centuries. He has done so, moreover, by resurrecting the prayer most identified with that fear. No, he has not made the prayer mandatory in churches, but neither do priests need permission to recite it. It is now a duly sanctioned alternative.

The prayer no longer speaks of Jewish “blindness” or “darkness,” much less “perfidy.” But it still asks that “all Israel be saved through Christ our Lord.” It was that missionizing ambition, not the phrasing of it, that troubled Jews through the ages. That was the doctrine that Pope John Paul II promised to annul.

Considering that our Good Friday Prayer is offensive to the Jews what about the Talmud?

The Talmud (Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד) according to Wikipedia is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history.

What does it say regarding Jesus , Mary and the Christians in general?

• "Jesus was a bastard born of adultery." (Yebamoth 49b, p.324).
• "Mary was a whore: Jesus (Balaam) was an evil man." (Sanhedrin 106a &b, p.725).
• "Jesus was a magician and a fool. Mary was an adulteress". (Shabbath 104b, p.504).
• "Christians are allied with Hell, and Christianity is worse than incest". (Abodah Zarah 17a, p.85).
• "WHEN MESSIAH COMES HE WILL DESTROY THE CHRISTIANS". (Sanhedrin 99a,p.668).
• "Those who read the Gospels are doomed to Hell". (Sanhedrin 90a, 100b, pp.601-602, 680).

So who is more offensive? Off with the baloney! We ought to pray for the Jews and pray hard that they be converted to the True Faith. The Catholic Faith.

• 16.
• For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first and to the Greek.

• 17.
• For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faith, as it is written: The just man liveth by faith.

• 18.
• For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice:

• 19.
• Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them.

• 20.
• For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. His eternal power also and divinity: so that they are inexcusable.

• 21.
• Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God or given thanks: but became vain in their thoughts. And their foolish heart was darkened.

• 22.
• For, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

• 23.
• And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts and of creeping things.

• 24.
• Wherefore, God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness: to dishonour their own bodies among themselves.

• 25.
• Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. - St. Paul (Romans 1:16-25)

Viva Cristo Rey!