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Vatican City - Prayer Deemed Offensive Prompts Rabbis To Cancel Annual Celebration |
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Chief Rabbi of Venice, Elia Richetti
The chief rabbi of Venice, Elia Enrico Richetti, cited the pope's decision to restore a prayer for the conversion of Jews deemed offensive to Jews in Easter Week services of the old Latin Mass.
In an article published Tuesday in the Italian Jesuit magazine Popoli, Richetti said the Assembly of Italian rabbis felt the prayer, and subsequent comments by church officials about the controversy, showed a lack of respect that was necessary for dialogue to continue.
"If we add to this the recent positions taken by the pope about dialogue, said to be useless because the superiority of the Christian faith is proven anyway, then it's evident that we're heading toward the cancellation of the last 50 years of church history," he wrote.
Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the Italian bishops' commission on interreligious dialogue, said the history of Jewish-Catholic relations cannot just be "canceled," the ANSA news agency reported.
"If there are difficulties, which undoubtedly there are in Italy, they should become an occasion to recast the dialogue even more strongly," ANSA quoted him as saying.
In 2007, Benedict relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine rite, which was celebrated before the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s paved the way for the New Mass used widely today in local languages.
In doing so, Benedict restored to prominence a prayer for the conversion of Jews that is recited during Good Friday services of Easter Week. Jewish groups had long criticized the prayer, and they expressed dismay that the pope's decree would allow it to be celebrated more broadly.
In a bid to stem the criticism, the Vatican issued a new prayer last year. But Jewish groups said the changes were equally disappointing since the language still suggested that they needed to convert to Christianity to find salvation.
While Jews have no intention of telling Catholics how to pray, "it's clear that to dialogue means to respect the right of the other to be himself," Richetti wrote in announcing that Italian rabbis wouldn't participate in the Italian Catholic Church's annual celebration of Judaism on Jan. 17.
Benedict, and before him Pope John Paul II, has made improving relations with Jews a priority. But there have been occasional tensions, most recently after a senior Vatican official, Cardinal Renato Martino, said Gaza under the Israeli military offensive resembled a "big concentration camp."
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Read Comments (18) — Post Yours »
2
Jan 13, 2009 at 07:19 PM Anonymous Says:
These Rabbis are bored and are looking to make themselves important.
They should apologize to the pope and the Jews for stirrng up unnecessary animosity..
It's not our business how they pray.
Also, anyone who truly believes in his own religion obviously must consider his religion to be superior.
In the past decades the catholic church has taken the position that Jews don't need to convert, (which was a great step forward) but if they do convert it would be good. To pray for them to do so does not negate that position.
3
Jan 13, 2009 at 07:02 PM Avrohom Abba Says:
The Pope should reconsider. The Church already made many good changes in its attitude toward the Jewish People. However, even though I would like to see a more flattering model of the rabbi pictured, i still agree with him. Unfortunately, many in the non Jewish world, will focus on his appearance and ignore what he said.
4
Jan 13, 2009 at 06:47 PM sharfe mottel Says:
terrible mistake, we shouldn't be shtecking inzer nooz arein in their business. of course they're going to claim their religion is superior,lehavdil we claim -truthfully- that OURS is the only true religion. do we want them,cholila to start searching for rites/prayers in yiddishkeit that they deem offensive to their religion. let them 'pray' as they wish,we don't have to participate
5
Jan 13, 2009 at 08:24 PM Yisroel Kuzniar Says:
Rabbi Richetti is a good man, a Talmud Chocham and a leader of a very unique community. I would honor and respect everything he says, unlike the coward on #1...who can't even write his name. Go back to shul and learn some middos!
6
Jan 13, 2009 at 07:53 PM Dr. Kalman Says:
Rabbi Rechitti I consider to be a good friend and I know him to be a man of great learning and wisdom--also a remarkable diplomat. I am horrified by the shallow observations about his appearace and would suggest that the readers allow the people who have to live with the situation to make the appropriate judgments about it.
7
Jan 13, 2009 at 09:00 PM murray Says:
“ Rabbi Richetti is a good man, a Talmud Chocham and a leader of a very unique community. I would honor and respect everything he says, unlike the coward on #1...who can't even write his name. Go back to shul and learn some middos! ”
the comment by #1 was just a stupid attempt an humor. He was Not trying in any way to defame the actual Rabbi-he doesn't even know him. I wouldn't try to defend the commenter if I thought there was real malice intent.
8
Jan 13, 2009 at 09:36 PM bigwheeel Says:
“ These Rabbis are bored and are looking to make themselves important.
They should apologize to the pope and the Jews for stirrng up unnecessary animosity..
It's not our business how they pray.
Also, anyone who truly believes in his own religion obviously must consider his religion to be superior.
In the past decades the catholic church has taken the position that Jews don't need to convert, (which was a great step forward) but if they do convert it would be good. To pray for them to do so does not negate that position. ”
Truthfully.What do we care how Catholics pray. It's action that counts. As long as they don't try to convert Jews or anyone else forcefully, who cares?! Furthermore, it reveals what's in the heart and the aspirations of some people. Recently, Anne Coulter (Conservative Broadcaster and writer) expressed similar desires (about Jews converting (Ch"v) to Christianity!!!
9
Jan 13, 2009 at 09:29 PM bigwheeel Says:
I got a similar impression. Without the tie. The look on his face is amusing, too. A "What, me worry" kind of expression. Maybe the Pictures got mixed up. It's hard to believe that the [Chief?] Rabbi of Rome should have such a lackadaisical bearing about himself!!!
10
Jan 13, 2009 at 11:05 PM Anonymous Says:
Who cares how great the rabbi is. The commentors who critisize him in this case are absolutely right! How can we tell them how to pray? Don't they have stuf about our prayers too? Let's just start with shelo asanu etc.
11
Jan 13, 2009 at 10:56 PM TSB Says:
How is their prayer different from, lehavidl, Aleinu?
12
Jan 13, 2009 at 10:55 PM Anonymous Says:
“ Rabbi Rechitti I consider to be a good friend and I know him to be a man of great learning and wisdom--also a remarkable diplomat. I am horrified by the shallow observations about his appearace and would suggest that the readers allow the people who have to live with the situation to make the appropriate judgments about it. ”
It is the middle of the night in Eretz Yisroel right now so these same people cannot direct the war in Gaza from the comfort of their leather Lazy Boy recliners in Teaneck, Livingston and Monsey.
13
Jan 13, 2009 at 11:08 PM Anonymous Says:
Some are not getting the point...it's not about whether they should or shouldn't say that prayer its more of an issue about the action of "restoring" it... once it was omitted it should have been ignored by the pope, the fact that he initiated it again..sure says something...and is in a certain way an insult to Judaism...
14
Jan 13, 2009 at 11:26 PM sharfe mottel Says:
“ the comment by #1 was just a stupid attempt an humor. He was Not trying in any way to defame the actual Rabbi-he doesn't even know him. I wouldn't try to defend the commenter if I thought there was real malice intent. ”
murray i enjoy your posts,they're always a fresh breeze of clarity & common sense. however i think that what #1 posted is a chutzpa against anyone,never mind a rabbi,regardless of humorous intent
15
Jan 13, 2009 at 11:52 PM Anonymous Says:
There is background to this reinstatement which most VIN readers are not likely to know.
There was a strong backlash against some of the excesses in creating liturgy following Vatican II. There were die-hard traditionalists who refused to abandon the original Latin liturgy even when it was banned by the Vatican.
Under Pope JP II some congregations were granted papel approval of a return to the old liturgy, which included this prayer, whereas the new liturgies (in the local vernaculars of each congregation) did not include this prayer in an updated form.
So this whole bruhahah set off by the reinstatement of the prayer for the conversion of the Jews is actually over something that has very little to do with the Jews.
16
Jan 14, 2009 at 05:27 AM matzahlocal101 Says:
"said the history of Jewish-Catholic relations cannot just be "canceled," the ANSA news agency reported."
------
Yes that is true. The history of Jewish-Catholic relations, i.e., the crusades, the inquisition, the expulsions, the auto-defe', the pogroms, and the holocaust, led by good Catholics in good Catholic countries cannot just be cancelled, for those who forget the past, are destined to repeat it.
17
Jan 14, 2009 at 09:44 AM Anonymous Says:
I hate to disagree with so many. But what other faiths do is none of our business. Once WE start telling others what to do in their churchs, they have a right to butt into what we do or say in our shuls.
Oh, we are afraid of their Missionary efforts?
That is out job. Our job is to educate our people so they are not such easy prey to Christian or Catholic (not the same) Missionaries.
If we walk into somoene else's "too cold" house, and we are barely wearing any clothes, it is not our place to try to force them to turn off their A/C.
The say goes here. It is our job to wear our protective clothing of Jewish education, so we are not vulnerable to their sales pitches.
Also, it if our job to keep our kids in Yeshivos, where they will not date goyim. If we send out kids to public schools, or do not train them well enough that they go to college and date goyim there, they will meet Christians and Catholics, fall in love, and marry them. In many cases, THAT is where Jews give up on Judaism, to get married.
That is one of the biggest reasons to keep our kids away from Universities which do not have large Jewish populations.
But, we certainly can't stop members of other faiths from praying as they see fit!
Do we want another mess like Alainu?
Have we forgotten that story, in EVERY nusach of Alainu we had the posuk, "Shehaim Mishtachavim LoHevel ViLaRik, Umisspallilim el Eil LO Yoshia, V'Anachnu Modim..."
It was a universale minhag to spit on the floor when saying ViLaRik.
It was goyim in Germany who forced that posuk to be removed from the Ashkanaz siddur! ArtScroll is now first putting it back in, so Ashkenaz is now, in the newest siddurim matching all others who still have the original posuk.
Don't mess with our prayers, and I won't mess with yours.
Remember, ALL faiths other than Judaism have goals of converting everyone else. That is the way it goes. To ignore that is to not believe in gravity.
What are we going to ask for next; maybe thay the physicists re-write the laws of gravity, and make sure that siddurim and tefillin stop falling when dropped? After all that law, that law of gravity is offensive to Jews with tefillin dropping.
Oh, we should not wrap tefillin without a table or chair in front of us to prevent the tefillin falling on the floor? That is the same as education and supervising our children to prevent dating goyim, to prevent their Judaism falling on the floor.
18
Jan 14, 2009 at 02:47 PM Berl Says:
I wonder if the Pope would attend a service where the Jews recited the Oleinu Chabad style loudly saying the words She haim mishtachavim Lhevel vloreek umispallim Leil lo yosheiah and then spit on the floor, or if the Pope would like attending a seder where Jews loudly said Shfoch Chamoscho al hagoyim?
The Tridentine rite is very offensive as it negates our beliefs. It is akin to the sermons of the Muslims calling non muslims sons of pigs and monkeys and calling for us to convert become dhimmis or be killed.
Conversion is spiritual death, forced conversion spiritual murder. The Catholics murdered enough Jews with their Inquisitions, crusades, pogroms and the holocaust, Yes Hitler yimach Shmo was a Catholic in good standing (and the Pope was a member of Hitler Youth and served in the Luftwaffe)
19
Jan 14, 2009 at 03:33 PM Anonymous Says:
“ I wonder if the Pope would attend a service where the Jews recited the Oleinu Chabad style loudly saying the words She haim mishtachavim Lhevel vloreek umispallim Leil lo yosheiah and then spit on the floor, or if the Pope would like attending a seder where Jews loudly said Shfoch Chamoscho al hagoyim?
The Tridentine rite is very offensive as it negates our beliefs. It is akin to the sermons of the Muslims calling non muslims sons of pigs and monkeys and calling for us to convert become dhimmis or be killed.
Conversion is spiritual death, forced conversion spiritual murder. The Catholics murdered enough Jews with their Inquisitions, crusades, pogroms and the holocaust, Yes Hitler yimach Shmo was a Catholic in good standing (and the Pope was a member of Hitler Youth and served in the Luftwaffe) ”
That Olainu was not Chabad, but everyone's nusach before the Goyim forced it out of Nusach Ashkenaz. It has aways been in Nusach Sfard, and Nusach Ari Zal. ArtScroll is returning it to their Nusach Ashkenaz Siddur.
It was forced out by goyim, and enforced by police in the shuls. If the Chazzan recited it, he was arrested!
That is what happened to us by outsiders messing around with our davening. Could our messing around with other religions's prayers cause a backlash where they get interested again in ours?