The rumor regarding a possible alteration of the Prayer for the Jewish people in the Great Intercessions of the Good Friday liturgy according to the Missale Romanum of John XXIII has up to now only one journalistic source: the piece by Andrea Tornielli in Il Giornale.
In his latest article in Chiesa, Sandro Magister comments on several moves by Pope Benedict and includes the following:
Moreover, there will soon be published a new formulation of the prayer for the Jews contained in the rite for Good Friday in the 1962 "Tridentine" missal liberalized by the motu proprio. The references to the condition of "darkness" and "blindness" of the Jewish people will disappear, while the prayer for their conversion will remain. "Because in the liturgy we are always praying for conversion, of ourselves in the first place and then of all Christians and non-Christians," explained archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, in an interview with "Avvenire."
It is a strange paragraph. First, because there does not seem to be any other source for the comment than Tornielli's report and the Vatican source, presumably in the Congregation for Divine Worship, who leaked the information to him. Second, because the words of the interview of the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Angelo Amato, would seem to corroborate the rumor, but they do not, for they were extracted, by way of Tornielli's article of January 2008, from an interview granted by Amato to the semi-official daily of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Avvenire, on July 11, 2007, shortly after the publication of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum.
This is the entire quote:
This is the entire quote:
Your Excellency, there are those who accuse the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum” of being anti-Conciliar because it offers full citizenship to a Missal in which the conversion of the Jews is prayed for. Is it truly contrary to the letter and to the spirit of the Council to formulate this prayer?
[Amato:] "Certainly not. At Mass, we Catholics are always praying, and first of all, for our own conversion. And we strike our breast for our sins. And then we pray for the conversion of all Christians and of all non-Christians. The Gospel is for all." [Transcript in Italian]
The rumor on the alteration of the prayer may well turn out to be true, perhaps sooner rather than later, but nothing has been officially published up to now, just one week before Lent begins. In any event, Amato's words in July 2007 cannot be used to corroborate the rumor, since their meaning is actually contrary to any prospect of alteration.
