It’s outlandish. Unthinkable in this day and age. I cannot believe that anyone could be so insensitive to Jewish people. This matter had been settled. The Catholic Church was wrong to bring back the Latin Mass and worse, prayers that call for the conversion of the Jews. What kind of person could say these things? To what things am I referring? You be the judge:
“I ask you, does this make sense? Where do we Jews get off making demands of Catholics that they only say prayers that meet with [the jews] approval?” he asks. “The audacity of Jews dictating to Christians how they should pray is simply mind-boggling.”
Shocking, I know. Who is this insensitive beast? This rabid anti-semite? It is none other than Rabbi Yerachmiel Seplowitz of Monsey New York.
In a welcome display of chutzpah and common sense, Rabbi Seplowitz defies the common wisdom of Abe Foxman and the Ordinary Ministers of the Media. CNA Reports:
In an article titled The Pope’s Got A Point and published in the July 18 issue of The Jewish Press, Rabbi Yerachmiel Seplowitz says he is “not at all put off by the fact that the leader of another religion sees that religion as primary.”
“I’ve always found it curious that people of different religions get together in a spirit of harmony to share their common faiths,” he writes. “By definition, these people should have strong opposition to the beliefs of their ‘colleagues’ at the table. The mode of prayer of one group should be an affront to the other group.
“What the pope is saying – and I agree 100 percent – is that there are irreconcilable differences, and we can’t pretend those differences don’t exist,” he states. “I can respect the pope for making an unambiguous statement of what he believes.”
While all people, created in God’s image, and their beliefs are worthy of respect, “we don’t need to play games of ‘I’m okay, your okay’ with beliefs we find unacceptable,” he writes.
Rabbi Seplowitz understands some very simple things. Definition of differences is not denigration. You can only find common ground with others when you don’t gloss over the differences. Ecumenism in honesty.
September 5, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I see no problem with the Pope substituting the new Intercessions in place of those from the 1962 Missal for the new celebrations of the Tridentine Rite with the new MP. There is much in the old intercessions which really don’t “jive” with what the Second Vatican Council ruled in “Nostra Aetate”. Keeping those prayers verbatim is not needed. They are just a form and the ethos they express has changed.
September 6, 2007 at 2:32 am
if thats what you really believe anonymous then not only have you missed the rabbi’s point but you either interpret vatII on its own without the other councils that came before it (wich makes you a brand new catholic whos religion started in 1965 like so many catholics i know)or you might be an anti semite.as pat buchanan put it if you believe you are a member of the true religion and you dont pray for the jews to convert that makes you an anti semetic.
September 6, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Krislynne,
That is a strange twisting of my words. Have you read Nostra Aetate?? Indeed, Rome has indicated that it would be willing to substitute the new intercessions in place of the older ones. Again, it is just a form.
Have you read the history of the effect of the old prayers and it’s relationship to anti-semitism? (and PLEASE spell it correctly!)
Your sentiments just remind me once again that no matter how traditionalist I am, I do not fit in with the toxicity of the extreme Right in the Church just as with the extreme Left. Must be doing something right.
September 7, 2007 at 3:56 am
anonymous i realise now that the way i made the comments to you was bad form. it sounds like a personal attack, sorry i get hot headed sometimes. it seems my point is still valid. if we believe we are the true faith don’t we have an obligation to pray for others to become catholic? now if you want to argue that “perfidis” should be taken out im with you (even though it was taken out by john XXIII) because that could be easily misunderstood. even though “perfidis” just means without faith. “remove the veil from their hearts…hear our prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people: that acknowledging the light of thy truth which is in Christ they may be rescued form their darkness.” to say that this prayer can somehow lead to anti-semitism does not make sense to me. can you show me in Nostra Aetate where it doesn’t “jive” to pray for conversion of people of other faiths? should we also omit 2cor.iii13-16 from the bible for the sake of the jews? explain to me why your line of reasoning isn’t false ecumenism.