Elephants and the Jewish Problem. Koshers Ham it Up

In our last post we discussed the Good Friday prayers in the Latin Mass, after which there followed a highly entertaining debate in the combox about Halal laws and Harems. We hope we can continue the high standard of conversation with this post as well.

So this Pope has gone and re-written the prayers for the Jewish people in the Good Friday Liturgy connected with the Old Latin Mass (AKA "Tridentine Mass", "Traditional Roman Rite", "Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite", "Latin Mass", "Mass of Pius V", "Mass of All Ages", and "That Pre Vatican II sham they called Mass"). He removed those Elijah-esque words such as "blindness" and "veils", but still said that we'd like them to convert if possible. Here's someone's English translation:

Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men.
Let us pray. (Kneel, Rise)

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 fulness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Much nicer, I think. But "The Jews" are concerned about this - and of course we should expect it to be so. Such violent language about Saviors and propitiousness is enough to furrow the hardiest brow, and that's just on spellings and pronunciations. But more than that - apparently they don't like the idea of being converted.

Now we used to all agree on this point. They want us to stop being Christian, and we want them to be Christian. That way, no matter who wins we can all be Companions on the Journey. And it makes sense - we either think we're onto a good thing and offer it to others, or we change. But noooooo, somewhere along the way some geniuses decided that that it's now "Harem" to talk about such things altogether. You can see why the good rabbis are confused.

For reactions from the various Catholic Korners, see our last post - it's pretty much the same this time with the following variations. Fr Z had bucatini alla matriciana and steak with a Gorgonzola sauce, along with some Sagrantino. (I don't think he did that last time).

Now interestingly, this is the first real change made to the "1962 Missal" since (guess!) 1962. So does that make it the "2008 Missal"? On this question and many others, the Vatican has been suspiciously silent.


For discussion, please consider the following. How often have you been out to dinner and had pasta as an entree, followed by steak? They keep suggesting this at La Porchetta, but I've rarely seen it done.