Rabbi Seeks Removal from Good Friday Liturgy a Hymn Which Has Strong Anti-jewish Elements

An American rabbinical expert on Catholic-Jewish relations has renewed a long dormant effort to obtain removal from the Catholic Good Friday liturgy of a hymn which has strong anti-Jewish elements.

Called the “Improperia,” or “Reproaches.” the ancient hymn is sung during the “Veneration of the Cross,” While the term “Jews” does not appear in the hymn, the reference is unmistakable.

The opening verse, as given in English translation in a 1961 study made under American Jewish Committee auspices, “Anti-Jewish Elements in Catholic Liturgy,” reads: “O My People, what have I done unto thee? Or in what have I offended thee? Answer Me. Because I led thee out of the land of Egypt, thou has prepared a cross for thy Savior.”

The second verse reads, according to the 1961 study, “Because I led thee out of the desert in forty years, and fed thee with manna and brought thee into a very good land, thou has prepared a cross for thy Savior.” Each verse is followed by the refrain: “O My People…”

Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, director of inter-religious affairs of the AJCommittee, said the 1961 study showed that portions of the text of the hymn were efforts to take the Passover “dayenu” of thanks and turn its message against the Jews.

CATHOLIC OFFICIALS URGED TO TAKE ACTION

Tanenbaum earlier in the week sent letters on the problem to Bishop James Rausch, general secretary of the United States Catholic Conference, and to the Rev. John Sheerin associate director of the Bishops Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations. He also wrote to the Rev. Frederick McManus, dean of the graduate school at Catholic University in Washington and a specialist in Catholic liturgy and a former president of the National Catholic Liturgical Association.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops has a liturgical commission which reportedly has discussed modifications or elimination of the hymn but has not taken official action on making such a recommendation to the full American Catholic hierarchy.

Tanenbaum told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the AJCommittee is asking the Catholic officials to put the matter on their agendas for attention and possible action. He said Archbishop John R. Quinn of Oklahoma City is chairman of the bishops’ liturgical commission and that Rausch could formally bring the issue to the Archbishop’s attention for official action.

Tanenbaum said his office arranged for the 1961 study at the request of the late Augustin Cardinal Bea, then President of the Secretariat for Christian Unity. The study, one of three on possible sources of anti-Jewish hostility in Catholic teachings, was made at Bea’s request after he was assigned by Pope John the responsibility of preparing the schema on Catholic-Jewish Relations for Vatican Council II.

The rabbi said the Cardinal asked that the study on liturgy be kept confidential because he was then under tremendous pressure against any changes in the liturgy from Arab-Catholic clergy and from ultra-Orthodox Catholic theologians who firmly believed that the Jews had crucified Jesus and deserved punishment for their “sins.”

SOME SUCCESS NOTED

Tanenbaum said that the Initial cooperative efforts at improving Catholic-Jewish relations. growing out of Vatican Council II decisions, had been aimed at eliminating anti-Jewish references from Catholic textbooks so that future generations of Catholics would not be exposed to such anti-Jewish teachings. He told the JTA that there were no such references in any Catholic textbook published last year, marking the success of a 10-year effort.

In his letter to Rausch, Tanenbaum noted the elimination of anti-Jewish content from Catholic teaching materials and added that “for some inexplicable reasons, much less attention has been paid to similar problems in liturgy.” He recalled that Pope John had removed the “perfidious Jew” prayer from the Good Friday service but that “little systematic work has been done in liturgy” on that problem.

Until 1970, when the English translation of the hymn became available, the “Improperia” had been sung in Latin and implications reportedly were not understood. The issue surfaced this year when Kenneth A. Briggs. religious editor of the New York Times, who is a Catholic, became aware of the anti-Jewish elements of the hymn and discussed it with a number of Catholic clerical leaders, including Rausch, McManus, Sheerin and others.

Briggs reported, in an article in the Times which appeared the day after Good Friday, that some of the Catholic dignitaries felt that the hymn failed to conform to a set of guidelines on Catholic-Jewish relations issued in January 1975 which requires that the Catholic church evaluate its liturgy for possible anti-Jewish references.

TIME CONSUMING PROCESS

In his letter to Rausch. Tanenbaum said he had sent some of the findings of the 1961 study to Briggs in the belief that enough time had elapsed since 1961 to permit such release and that he was also making the findings available to Rausch and the other Catholic leaders.

Tanenbaum also wrote Rausch that “we would authorize you to make this available to the appropriate commissions or persons who would be responsible for undertaking any program of revision of negative on injurious references to Jews or Judaism in present-day liturgical materials.”

Tanenbaum added that, after those commissions or persons made a study of the 1961 findings. “perhaps it would be in order to consider issuing a set of guidelines dealing specifically with the removal of negative references and the incorporation of more affirmative liturgical expressions that would advance the cause of Catholic-Jewish understanding.”

Tanenbaum said that to make such changes, that nation’s bishops would have to request permission from the Vatican. This is understood to be a time-consuming process.