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

[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. :)