The rocking pnuemonia and those perfidious Jews

I've been seeing all over the internets where the Pope, for some reason, changed a prayer that is over like, 500 years old. There are several things wrong with this, and I shall point out the things that really grate on me.

As most of you know, this summer Pope Benedict XVI released the Latin Mass from its imagined constraints. Even before this actually happened, the Jews were FREAKING out over a tiny little prayer trad Catholics say on Good Friday.

For their souls.

Even if Muslims prayed for my soul, I would at the very least be thankful.

But not so with the Jews, who always seem to see treachery flung at them from every angle.

So the Jews complained to the Vatican.

So the Pope changed the prayer.

Here is the prayer as it has appeared for centuries:

“Let us pray also for the perfidious Jews: that Almighty God may remove the veil from their hearts so that they too may acknowledge Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty and eternal God, who dost not exclude from thy mercy even Jewish faithlessness: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of thy Truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Here is the new prayer:

“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. Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen”

So, the Jews are still pissed, because the Pope changed it, but not really. If he really didn’t change it, what was the point?

And why move so quickly? There have been many issues that need revision such as the “pro multis” question and the new translation of the NO missal. These things have taken years.

But piss off the Jews and months later there is a new prayer. Would the Jews have moved as quickly if Catholics had a problem with something in one of their prayers? Or would they have rightly told us to mind our own business? And that their worship is their own, and that they are fee to worship as they please without input from another faith?

And I also think this sets a bad precedence. The Pope shouldn’t be fudging around with the prayers in the Old Missal. There is plenty to change in the new that should be more of a priority. Shouldn’t communion in the hand, women in the sanctuary, and proper liturgical music be in the forefront?

I think we should be more concerned with appeasing God than appeasing his killers.