Letters to ...

German Bishops and Liturgy

SIR: With all due respect, the German Bishops must know that one hardly needs a cannon to kill a fly. So why resort to barraging the Pope with silly arguments (as they have in writing to His Holiness recently) about Catholic prayers offending Jews just to defy his intentions to broaden the indult for use of the “old” Roman liturgy?  (Ruth Gledhill, reporting in London’s Times on 14 May, noted that “a seven-page document of objections by German bishops was sent to the Pope. Among other things, the Germans were anxious about a Good Friday prayer calling for the conversion of the Jews.”)

What the Church means by the words, in the old Roman Liturgy, “perfidious Jews” – in Latin, perfidis Judaeis – has little or nothing to do with what many might imagine by connotations in vernacular languages. It means simply “faithless”, as in “without the Faith”.

That this error has led the ignorant and some anti-Catholics to claim that the prayer accused the Jews of treachery – which was a complete misunderstanding of the prayer, since it was not a litany of accusation, but a petition for conversion – is one thing. That the German Bishops have recently joined that PC-choir is another.

Besides, why do some Jews insist on meddling in other people’s affairs, or prayers?  Do Catholics try telling them how they should pray? The same applies to the canonisation of Pope Pius XII.  Until they are asked to testify at the trial, the process of his canonisation, what does all the fuss amount to, anyway, but hearsay?

As for praying for the conversion of non-Catholics, whether heathen, Jew or Muslim, what do people think the Church was founded for? Hosting tea parties at the UN?

DENNIS P. MITCHELL

Bangor, Pennsylvania