Conservative Rabbis Are Asking For Trouble

Conservative Rabbis are asking that the Church make a change in its prayers:

The revision of a contentious Good Friday prayer approved this week by Pope Benedict XVI could set back Jewish-Catholic relations, Conservative Judaism's international assembly of rabbis says in a resolution to be voted on next week.

The prayer calls for God to enlighten the hearts of Jews "so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men."

The draft resolution states the prayer would "cast a harsh shadow over the spirit of mutual respect and collaboration that has marked these past four decades, making it more difficult for Jews to engage constructively in dialogue with Catholics."

Read the whole thing.

But dialogue works both ways, and at some point the Church will make some requests of their own--in fact they already have. In October last year Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago suggested a quid pro quo:

But this should mean that Jews, in turn, consider amending their own religious texts, he said.

"It does work both ways. Maybe this is an opening to say, 'Would you care to look at some of the Talmudic literature's description of Jesus as a bastard, and so on, and maybe make a few changes in some of that?'"

Are Conservative Rabbis willing to open this door and deal with requests by the Church to change Jewish texts?
And how far are they willing to go?

Crossposted at Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Judaism.