ITALY:The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has suggested that a highly controversial prayer for the conversion of the Jews could be dropped from the reintroduced Latin-language rite.
Speaking at a news conference, Cardinal Bertone was asked about Pope Benedict's recent decree allowing a wider use of the old Latin missal which was phased out after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council which sat between 1962 and 1965.
Some Jewish leaders have sharply criticised the decree, which suggested the possible revival of a passage from the old Latin prayer book for Good Friday calling for the conversion of the Jews.
Cardinal Bertone said "we could simply study" the possibility of substituting the prayer, which asks that God remove the "veil" from Jewish hearts so that they would recognise Jesus Christ.
Cardinal Bertone said the prayer that many Jews have found offensive could be replaced by one introduced into church rituals in the 1970s and which makes no reference to conversion of Jews.
Pope Benedict's decree, issued on July 7th, authorised wider use of the old Latin missal, a move which traditionalist Catholics had demanded for decades but which Jews and other Christian groups said could set back inter-religious dialogue.
The move raised fears in some liberal Catholic quarters that it could split the church and turn back the clock on various reforms introduced in the 1960s and 1970s. Many Catholic traditionalists miss the Latin rite's sense of mystery and the centuries-old Gregorian chant that went with it.