Good Friday Prayer For The Jews - Background

Background

Norman Roth describes how Good Friday-Easter week in medieval Europe was a time of dread for the "perfidis Judaeis" (the faithless Jews) who would often come under attack. He reports Msg. Oesterreicher as arguing, with some support from others, that the term "pro perfidis judaeis" in the Good Friday liturgy did not mean perfidious but rather "unfaithful, non-believer". Roth concludes however, that "one cannot deny" that the term attributes to Jews willful obstinacy in the face of truth. In the early 1920s the missionary organisation Society of Friends of Israel requested that the phrase "perfidious Jews" be removed from the liturgy. Pope Pius XI was reportedly strongly in favour of the reforms and asked the Congregation of Rites to review the matter. Cardinal Schuster, who was among the Friends of Israel, was appointed to monitor this issue. The Roman Curia, however, is reported to have reacted very negatively to the proposal on the basis that if one change was made to the old liturgy it would open the door to other such proposals. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decided to dissolve the association (25 March 1928). After World War II, Eugenio Zolli, the former Chief Rabbi of Rome and a convert to Roman Catholicism, asked Pope Pius XII to excise from the Good Friday liturgy the adjective "perfidus" in relation to the Jews. The Pope responded with a public declaration that in Latin "perfidus" means "unbelieving", not "treacherous". He could do no more at that time. It was only fifteen years later that changes were made by Pope John XXIII.

Catholic historian Warren H. Carroll asserts:

The word "perfidious" in the old Good Friday liturgy referred to the rejection of God's Son the Messiah by the Jews who called for his crucifixion. He had given them proofs of who He was, but they closed their eyes and ears to them. Though it may be counter-productive to make this point in today's age, this willful blindness to the truth is spectacularly evidenced... They must have known or at least guessed the truth, and yet refused to believe. In any case, the expression "perfidious" cannot logically apply to Jews apart from the circumstances of the crucifixion, except under a theory of collective guilt...