Pope Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio, "Summorum Pontificum," relaxing restrictions on the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, has brought consolation to many traditionalist Catholics who attend Latin Masses, though these are only a small percentage of the Catholic community in the United States, some 150,000 out of 69 million.
For most Catholics, the Pope's initiative will make little difference in their worship life. Most are comfortable with the Vatican II liturgy; they appreciate its vernacular language and its more communal style of celebration.
Pope Benedict has stressed that there are not two different rites for the Mass, but two different editions of the Roman Missal, that of John XXIII (1962), the last revision of the Roman Missal used since the Council of Trent, and the missal of Paul VI (1970). Pope Benedict has also made clear that missal of Paul VI is the "ordinary form" of the liturgy, the missal of John XXIII the "extraordinary form."
One of Benedict's hopes is that the use of the two forms of the Roman Rite will be mutually enriching, with the old missal incorporating some of the new prefaces and the feasts of the more recently canonized saints, while the sacred quality and reverence which attracts some to Tridentine Mass will lead to greater a reverence in the celebration of the Vatican II liturgy and thus, to a greater love for the missal of Paul VI.
The most discordant note came from some representatives of the Jewish community, some of whom clearly overreacted. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, described it as "a theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body blow to Catholic Jewish relations." The usually judicious and balanced Michael Lerner, editor of the journal Tikkun, rather stridently declared that it represented "a first step on a slippery slope towards the restoration of anti-Semitism in the Church as well as the restoration of authoritarian and feudal ways of thinking."
Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs of the American Jewish Committee, an irenic and always wise commentator, noted that the Tridentine Mass already had been allowed by Pope John Paul and that Pope Benedict had only expanded its usage, adding "I think (Jewish groups) are mistaken in their reading. Things will become clearer when we get a clarification in the next few days. We need a clarification and have asked for such."
The objection is over the inclusion of a revised prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the Good Friday General Intercessions. Though John XXIII had dropped the offensive adjective "perfidious" (unbelieving) in reference to the Jews, the prayer in the 1962 missal is still offensive, suggesting that the Jews are spiritually blind and need to be converted:
"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. Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness."
The missal of Paul VI expresses it quite differently:
"Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption."
I think much of the alarm is misplaced. First, the old Good Friday prayer, even though it is quoting St. Paul about the veil covering their hearts (2 Cor 3:15), does not reflect the Church's current attitude towards the Jews. They are not seen as excluded from God's grace or living in darkness.
Second, it is not at all clear that the offending prayer will be even used. It is not in the Mass, as has frequently been alleged. It appears only in the Good Friday General Intercessions. The Motu Proprio allows a priest celebrating "without the people" to do so on any day except in the Sacred Triduum, the three days of the celebration of the Paschal Mystery. What is not clear is whether or not Tridentine communities that regularly celebrate publicly can use the old missal of John XXIII for the Sacred Triduum. This could be easily clarified.
More seriously, at the root of the Jewish concern is the fear that this initiative of Pope Benedict denies that the Jews can be saved as Jews. But this is in no way the case.
One prayer in a missal no longer ordinary or normative does not trump Vatican II's dogmatic teaching that among those related to the People of God, in the first place are the Jews, "the people to whom the covenants and the promises were given and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh (cf. Rom. 9:4-5). On account of their fathers, this people remains most dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts he makes nor of the calls He issues (cf. Rom. 11:28-29; Lumen Gentium 16)."
Furthermore, Pope Benedict has not questioned or compromised the Council's repudiation of the notion of a collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus (NA ftnt 21). Nor has he, unlike the Southern Baptists, initiated a campaign to target Jews for conversion.
It is true that Pope Benedict teaches that God's universal salvific will is offered and accomplished once for all in the mystery of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, but that is simply basic Christian doctrine. To assert this is in no way to deny the dignity of others or their religions, or to suggest that one has to become Christian in order to be saved. God works in mysterious ways, even among those who do not know Christ or his Gospel (cf. LG 16). Jesuit Father Thomas Rausch is the T. Marie Chilton Professor of Catholic Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and a member of The Tidings' Editorial Council. |