Yesterday the excommunications of the four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X were lifted. So much to say on the article. Let's start with the Holocaust denier whose excommunication was lifted. This is in my mind a very bad political move for a pope who is already viewed with suspicion by Jews. They are quite right, Holocaust denial is not an excommunicable offense. But nothing obliges the pope to lift the excommunication for another offense. Put another way, while you can't excommunicate someone for being a Holocaust denier, I see no reason why you can't refuse to lift an excommunication for another reason, at least temporarily, even if that reason no longer stands. I fear this may do incalculable damage to Jewish-Catholic relations.
On the other side of the coin, and maybe some will accuse me of contradicting myself, I am frustrated by the Jewish kvetching about the old Mass. Part of this comes from the way the article was written; it says the Jews were "incensed by the rehabilitation of the old Latin Mass because it contained a prayer calling for their conversion." This makes it sound like every Mass contained the prayer! For crying out loud, it's on ONE day out of the year, which isn't even a day the faithful are obligated to attend Mass! (Good Friday) And even so, we believe that everyone should be converted to Catholicism, not just Jews, so we're not singling them out. And beyond even that, while I understand the Judaism is not a proselytizing religion, surely they can't expect religions to not seek converts? You can disagree with us, you can not want Jews to convert, but what right do you have to demand that we not pray for your conversion? I couldn't care less myself if my Protestant prethren pray for the conversion of Catholics. Excluding the interpretation that everyone needs conversion, to me this is an expression of love and concern, however misguided. Sure, it communicates the idea that we need conversion to their own faith, but I respect them that they believe in the truth enough to ask for that conversion. Moreover, I know that God will take that prayer and make it a right prayer and do the right thing. Maybe that will be answering it by helping Catholics grow deeper in their own faith. Maybe it will be even be by bringing Catholics who don't have real faith into a relationship with God through their own ministry and maybe they will convert and find grace that they wouldn't have encountered in the Catholic church — while this is not God's perfect will, I fully believe God allows people to join other churches because that's the only way he can get to them. In which case, glory be to God, he has done what he wills. If God wants to allow someone to convert to a Protestant church for some greater reason, I will not object. The point is, I see no reason to grouse about someone's prayers, especially a prayer used by an infinitesimal minority of Catholics on one day out of the year that isn't even obligatory or well attended.
The other thing that bugs me about this article is it says, "In lifting the excommunication decree, he answered the society's second condition for beginning theological discussions about normalizing relations." Huh? So lifting the excommunications is a starting point for normalizing relations? Shouldn't it be the last step since communion implies full unity? Benedict must want this reconciliation more desperately than the SSPX. That spells trouble to me.
