50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate and the Good Friday Prayer

The Bishops' Conference requests that the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei review the prayer Pro Conversione Iudaeorum, in the Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday, in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, in the light of the understanding in Nostra Aetate of the relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism.catholicnews.org.uk
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23 November 2015
"The Bishops' Conference [of England and Wales] ... "
" ... requests that the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei review the prayer Pro Conversione Iudaeorum in the Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, in the light of the understanding in Nostra Aetate of the relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism".

There appears to be no indication whether this resolution, passed last week by the English and Welsh Bishops, was unanimous; or how detailed and profound their discussion had been.


Assuming that the bishops did not all wake up one morning with one identical thought in every head, it would be interesting to know where this concern originated; particularly, whether with one of the bishops or in some Liturgy Committee or other pressure group. Such information is always available with regard to the deliberations of the American Episcopal Conference.

I find it extraordinary that whoever originated this move is unaware that the current (as from 2008) form of that Prayer comes directly from the pen of Benedict XVI himself, who was at the Council as a peritus and, it has always seemed to me, gives the impression of knowing some of the Conciliar documents really quite well. And, while aware that a lot of people viscerally loathe Joseph Ratzinger, I have always found his writings, both as a theologian, and as Cardinal Prefect of the CDF, and as Successor of S Peter, cogent, convincing, and illuminating. I would like to be helped to understand where it is that I have gone wrong in this judgement.

A Conspiracy Theorist would probably wonder if this is part of an attempt to get rolling a movement for dismantling the Magisterium (and dishonouring the memory) of Benedict XVI; and for derailing the current rather promising rapprochement, under the direction of Pope Francis, between the Vatican and the SSPX. I, fortunately, am not a Conspiracy Theorist. What I would like to have, as a concerned Catholic Priest who tries to understand the Church's Magisterium, is a lucid and unwoffly statement of what exactly it is in the Prayer which contradicts which precise affirmations of Nostra Aetate, a document to which, of course, I subscribe. Since the Prayer as composed by Benedict XVI in 2008 carefully follows, even verbally, the teaching of S Paul* (an author whom I spent three decades teaching), I would also be very interested to know what it is in S Paul's teaching that is deemed to fall under the condemnation of Nostra Aetate.

* Romans 11:25-26; this pericope has not yet been censored from the Novus Ordo Lectionary.
Posted by Fr John Hunwicke at 14:04 liturgicalnotes.blogspot.fr

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