The “american Israelite” Protests Against Pope’s Insult to Jews in Consecration Prayer

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Exception to the manner in which Pope Pius XI made reference to the Jewish people in his consecration prayer was taken by the “American Israelite,” leading American Jewish weekly and organ of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

“The Pope has been guilty of an inexcusable impertinence. It is astonishing that His Holiness should have been so undiplomatic as to offer a gratuitous insult to millions of people, many of whom have shown themselves not only to be friendly to the Catholics, but even in the United States to side with them as against the arrogance of their enemies, of whom there are many. It is to be hoped that for once the Catholic congregations the world over, especially in the United States, will show their independence of Rome by either refusing to read the consecration prayer on December 31, or at least by striking out the offensive passage,” the paper declared.

Reference to the Jewish people was made by Pope Pius XI on December 31, at St. Peter’s Basilica, during a prayer following the proclamation of a New Christian religious festival of the Kingdom of Christ at the conclusion of the Catholic Holy Year 1925, according to despatches from Rome.

“Look finally with a merciful eye upon the sons of that people which was once your chosen people. May the blood which has been invoked upon them descend upon them also. Give them redemption of life,” the Pope prayed.

The Pope also made reference to the Moslems in the following words: “Be King of all those who still are wrapped in the darkness of the idolatry of Islam. Do not disdain to draw them into the light of your kingdom.”