Catholic (in)tolerance of Judaism, Islam

[qatarperegrine]

I just came across a rather telling article on IslamOnline.net.

The article recounts the Pope's recent decision to temper the language of a prayer used by the small number of Catholics still using the Latin Mass. The prayer, said only on Good Fridays, formerly called Jews "blind" and asked God to "lift the veil from their hearts." The new version of the prayer still calls for the conversion of Jews to Christianity, but does so a little more politically correctly.

Most newspapers reporting on this story have a lead graf like the AP's:

"The Vatican on Tuesday issued a new version of a Roman Catholic prayer that had long offended Jews, but some said the changes don't go far enough."

IslamOnline's, in contrast, reads like this:

"Even though Pope Benedict XVI has agreed to change a traditional Roman Catholic prayer just to please them, Jewish leaders remained unsatisfied."

Oh, those pesky Jewish leaders, never satisfied.

The kicker, though, is the ending of the IslamOnline piece:

"Pope Benedict is no stranger to controversy.
He had angered Muslims worldwide with a speech in which he hinted that Islam was violent and irrational.
Benedict expressed regret for the reaction to his speech, but stopped short of a clear apology sought by Muslims.
The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has since been boycotting the Vatican."

The message is pretty clear. If Jews feel disrespected by the Vatican, it's their fault for being unreasonably demanding. If Muslims feel disrespected, it's the Pope's fault for being insensitive.

Now, I could see an argument being made that members of one religion should resign themselves to the fact members of another religion may indeed believe that religion B is truer and better, and thus that adherents of religion A would be better off converting. But if that's true, and Jews are silly to be offended that the Pope thinks Christianity is better than Judaism, then shouldn't Muslims also accept that the Pope thinks Christianity is better than Islam?

Comments

[douglasperkins.livejournal.com]

No. And you know exactly why, and it has nothing to do with fairness.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, that's a good point.

But then Muslims should be more understanding when Bahais say that Bahai > Islam > Christianity > Judaism, and we all know THAT doesn't happen!

In other news ZOMG LELAND VISITED MY BLOG YAY. I can't wait to see you.

[douglasperkins.livejournal.com]

What I said before is still true on this thread. :)

They doth protest too much

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

As a Jew, I find it funny that media-sources so readily use expressions like "Jewish Leaders" or even the milder "Jewish groups". We Jews have no central authority. The only people I've seen being mentioned (such as the ADL) are self-appointed folks tooting their own horn, drumming up PR for themselves. AFAIK, the vast majority of actual spiritual leaders, couldn't care less about what Catholics pray for. It simply is of no importance to us. From our POV, Catholicism is already such a major distortion of its "Jewish origins", so why would we expect anything different with regard to such a minor point?

[materjibrail.livejournal.com]

It is clearly a major need for this century to find ways of both treasuring our own wisdom traditions/ worldviews/ religions as being not only "true for me" but accessing real truth in some way, while at the same time, honoring and respecting others. "Everything goes ", "it's true for me" or "there is no truth" are inadequate.

Also, the big divide seems to be between those who KNOW THE TRUTH but have never heard of hubris and what happens to people who fall into it, and those who realise ,in the words of my own tradition, that we see in a mirror, darkly ( and if you've looked in Roman mirrors of metal, you feel the metaphor better). I speak as one who is yet again dipping a toe into theories of mind and consciousness and ( gulp) quantum physics.

btw, who elected Tarcisio as deputy Pope? Doesn't happen, though good-old-boy bureaucracy rules in Rome.

And as an RC I do apologise to those "we" once called "Judeos perfidiosos" even if they don't all care. It was not nice. Like slavery, suttee, and various other obsolete ideas.