Holy Week

I haven`t said much about the controversy about the Good Friday prayer for the Jews in the 1962 missal as I hadn`t realised that it was controversial for the Catholic Church to pray for the conversion of others. Even the 1970 missal has a prayer which always seemed to me to be praying for the conversion of the Jews as well as other prayers praying for the coming of all Christians into one church and for those who do not believe in Christ or God to find faith. If we believe Christ to be the way, the truth and the life I had assumed that we, as Catholics, would want others to come to the same belief. However on Rorate Caeli there is part of an interview with Cardinal Bertone about this question. I reproduce it here.

There has been a great debate regarding the Motu proprio on the Tridentine Mass. How do you see the reactions of the Jews, who feel offended because it still contains an invitation to their conversion?

[Bertone:] The Jews, as John Paul II said, remain our older brothers. In the first [sic] Canon of that Mass, "our Father Abraham, father in the faith, and the High Priest Melchisedech" [sic] are invoked. I know of many rabbis who are glad about this. The formula regarding the Jews? The word 'perfidious' has already been removed. The problem of the "conversion" may be solved with a decision valid for all. For instance, using the formula of the liturgy for Holy Friday of Paul VI. Moreover, every priest may choose between the Tridentine Missal and that of Paul VI in the triduum of Holy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It is also fair to value the richness and beauty of the Latin language. Did you know that in China hundreds of universities have requested instructors of Latin to the Salesians?

I was delighted to hear about the Chinese universities. However this remark of Cardinal Bertone is revealing as some have said that Summorum Pontificum does not permit the use of the 1962 Mass in the triduum when in fact it only prohibits a private Mass using either missal in that period. The Cardinal makes clear here that a priest can celebrate the triduum with which ever missal he sees fit to use.