You know, sometimes, I don’t even care anymore about what used to get me apoplectic. Like the addition of an old prayer (sanitized for the modern day) to the Catholic mass. The one where they pray for the conversion of the Jews.
ROME – The most senior official in the Vatican after the Pope on Wednesday suggested that a highly controversial prayer for the conversion of the Jews could be dropped from the re-introduced Latin-language rite.
Speaking at a news conference, Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was asked about Pope Benedict’s recent decree allowing a wider use of the old Latin missal, or prayer book, that was phased out after the reforms of the so-called Second Vatican Council which sat between 1962 and 1965.
Some Jewish leaders have sharply criticized the decree, which revived the possible use of a passage from the old Latin prayer book for Good Friday calling for Jews to be converted.
[…] The Good Friday prayer asks that God remove the “veil” from Jewish heart so that they would recognize Jesus Christ.
Bertone said the prayer that many Jews have found offensive could be substituted with one introduced into church rituals in the 1970s and which makes no reference to conversion of Jews.
“This could be decided and this would resolve all the problems,” said Bertone, who was speaking near the northern Italian area where the Pope is on a mountain holiday. His news conference was televised live.
I just can’t seem to bring myself to care what Catholics pray about during mass. Nobody listens to the whole thing, anyway. I seriously doubt most Catholics are even going to notice what the priests are saying by the time they get to that one. I’ve been to several Catholic weddings, complete with full mass, and I have to say, they were the most boring weddings I ever attended. In fact, by my third one, I’d figured out how late to arrive to miss the mass altogether and get there in time for the wedding ceremony. I never told the bride and groom, just slipped in near the back while they were busy with their vows. And believe me, I’d do the same again if I ever got invited to another Catholic wedding.
Fastest wedding I ever attended? My cousin’s. Jewish. Second-fastest? My brother’s. He was married by the mayor of his town. In his own living room.
Besides, I’ve started trying to think of a way to start a new, modern, evangelical Judaism movement. I think it’s time I started actively soliciting my readers to convert to Judaism. We effing rock, man. We’re Number One. The parent religion! Before there was Islam… before there was Christianity… there was… JUDAISM!
Talk about your classic formula! Convert to Judaism! Our weddings are cooler and not at all boring! Plus, you get to ride in a chair during the reception!
Once you’re in, we teach you the secret handshake and let you into the club that rules the world. Membership fee required.
Oh, and by the way, your Popeness? Go ahead and keep on praying for my conversion. Three words: Never. Gonna. Happen.
Update: Here’s a great site on converting to Judaism. It has guidelines, anecdotes, and is a fair beginner’s guide to Judaism as well.
Somehow Meryl, I doubt your ambivalence is as pure as you claim. This post is a little too long for that…
You may be a bit late here. This is a site on the topic.
http://www.convert.org/
I am in the process of writing a satire on the J4J paskudniks and came across this site.
On the plus side, their “successes” do tend to raise the average IQ of the rest.
Don’t forget, you get to break things at Jewish weddings. I love the glass smashing.
Hubby and I had a civil wedding with my cousin as the officiant, it was short and sweet.
So Christians have lower average IQs than Jews do. Thanks for the tolerance there, Harry.
Re John M
You are reading way too much into my remarks. The clear meaning of the text is that, for the most part, those converted by J4J are usually not too bright and/or not knowledgable in Judaism.
Cool site. Great idea. We don’t have to hunt for converts but we should be a lot more open to accepting them, especially in Israel.
Yeh, kind of my attitude too. Dad grew up in Catholic country at a time when this was a problem. Not my problem now. God Bless America!