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LONDON (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Good Friday prayer for Jews in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite needs to be toned down and made more like the Ordinary Form's prayer. That's the gist of a resolution sent to the Vatican recently by the bishops of England and Wales.

The Extraordinary Form version of the prayer in question — which was already revised and somewhat softened by Pope Benedict in 2008 — reads: "Let us also pray for the Jews: that our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men."

The English and Welsh bishops want the prayer to be more like that recited in the Ordinary Form, in which it is said: "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."

Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark, England, chairman of the English and Welsh bishops' committee for Catholic-Jewish relations, states:

The 1970 Prayer, which is now used throughout the Church, is basically a prayer that the Jewish people would continue to grow in the love of God's name and in faithfulness of His Covenant, a Covenant which — as St. John Paul II made clear in 1980 — has not been revoked. By contrast the Prayer produced in 2008 for use in the Extraordinary Form of the liturgy reverted to being a prayer for the conversion of Jews to Christianity. This caused great upset and confusion in the Jewish community since the Church seemed to be giving inconsistent messages. The Bishops of England and Wales have now added their voice to that of German Bishops who have asked for the Prayer in the Extraordinary Form to be changed. Such a change would be important both for giving clarity and consistency to Catholic teaching and for helping to progress Catholic-Jewish dialogue.

He suggests that the Ordinary Form's prayer is more reflective of "Nostra Aetate," the Second Vatican Council's document on non-Christian faiths. That document states, "Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures." Further, it adds that "the Church, mindful of the patrimony She shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."

While there isn't any tension between those passages and the Extraordinary Form's prayer, those seem to be the messages of "Nostra Aetate" that Abp. McDonald thinks are more honored in the Ordinary Form.

In response to the bishops' plea, traditional Catholics in the United Kingdom maintain that the Extraordinary Form's prayer is perfectly consistent with the Church's theology and with Scripture.

"It is surprising that the bishops are unhappy with a prayer composed by Pope Benedict as recently as 2008, which, like the prayer it replaced, though in more measured language, reflects the theology and imagery of 2 Corinthians 3:13-16," says Dr. Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales.

The Scripture passage Shaw cites reads:

It is not for us to use veiled language, as Moses veiled his face. He did it, so that the people of Israel might not go on gazing at the features of the old order, which was passing away. But in spite of that, dullness has crept over their senses, and to this day the reading of the old law is muffled with the same veil; no revelation tells them that it has been abrogated in Christ. To this day, I say, when the law of Moses is read out, a veil hangs over their hearts. There must be a turning to the Lord first, and then the veil will be taken away.

In a blog post, Shaw points out that even Cdl. Walter Kasper of Germany, a notorious modernist, sees the Extraordinary Form's prayer as in harmony with Church teaching, tradition and Scripture.

"If Cdl. Kasper has no problem with Pope Benedict's Prayer for the Jews, then it seems pretty surprising that anyone in the Church should have a problem with it," Shaw explains. "His affirmation that, obviously, Christ died for all men, could usefully be underlined."

Some wonder how unified the bishops' conference of England and Wales really was on the resolution.

Father Joseph Hunwicke, a U.K. priest, clarifies, "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."

He's also concerned about the content of the bishops' appeal, which he believes is vague at best.

"What I would like to have, as a concerned Catholic Priest who tries to understand the Church's Magisterium," he says, "is a lucid and unwaffly 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."

Regarding the note about the resolution found on the bishops' conference's website, he remarks, "Whoever drafted it is clearly someone who believes, at all costs, in avoiding honest, or precise, dialogue."

For more on the Church's relations with Jews, watch our Premium program "The One True Faith: The Jews," or watch the following Vortex episode on the same subject:

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