Fr. Mawdsley of the Fatima Center has been doing excellent work tracing the history of the Jews through the Old Testament and explaining why they are a huge part of the attack on the Church since they initially refused Christ as the Messiah...

His work is essentially an echo of Bishop Williamson, who acknowledges the giftedness of the Jews, their opposition to Christ in the current times, and their eventual conversion (NOT now), after which we can expect to see some of the most incredible martyrs and servants of the Church in salvation history.

He has been strongly recommending to Traditional Catholics that they NOT kneel during the Good Friday prayers for the Jews.

He has some excellent suggestion as to how to go about this, including approaching the priest, possibly weeks in advance (like now Quinqugesima Sunday), and suggesting this.  In addition, talking to your Trad friends about it, so that when you do it yourself you won't be alone.

I think the general rules about singularity do not apply in this case, since this is a pretty important principal at stake.  In the pre-1955 Missal we see that the rubrics expressly omitted the genuflection because we do not want to join in or in any way give the appearance of mocking our Lord as the Jews did - through the Roman soldiers to whom they handed Him over - as when they knelt before Him, handed him a reed for a scepter, etc.

The prayers for the Jews have apparently been tampered with several times in modern times, each time lessening the impact.

This video, of several he has posted, does a good job explaining this and why it is important that we get right the public prayer of the Church for the conversion of the Jews.

Unfortunately, the translation of perfidis above as "faithless" is way too weak, as it means more someone who rejected the faith, betrayed the faith, etc.  Jews betrayed their Covenant with God by rejecting the Messiah.  One could translate simply as "perfidious", but in English that just means "treacherous" and doesn't convey the notion of "faith" as the Latin does.  Not sure I could think of a single English word to translate perfidis.

From the Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary ...


And then in Ecclesiastical language, the term "faith" refers to supernatural faith beyond the sense used by the pagan Romans.  Those who are merely without faith would be more infidus or infidelis, where as the prefix "per" suggests a more active or aggressive breaking or violation of faith, rather than a mere absence thereof.

I didn't think this was part of the Pius XII changes either.  I have a St Andrew's 1949 missal, so I'm not sure.

Yes, adding Flectamus genua etc was one of the changes in Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae Instauratus for Good Friday.  'Perfidious' was removed later.

Yes, adding Flectamus genua etc was one of the changes in Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae Instauratus for Good Friday.  'Perfidious' was removed later.

Yeah, the removal of perifidis is absurd.  Not all Jews are perfidis, as some have accepted Our Lord and become Catholics.  Others have become other religions, e.g. hertics, in which case they're being prayed for elsewhere.  We're not praying for the Jews simpliciter here but for the "perfidious" ones.

Just checked and 'perfidious' was ordered to be removed by John XXIII in March 1959.  So effective for Good Friday that year and printed in subsequent editions of the Missal etc.

If I understood him correctly, Dr. Robert Sungenis has written against what Fr. Mawdsley said recently saying that St. Paul was not actually talking about an eventual conversion of the Jews in his Epistle to the Romans and that there were Fathers who misread that passage, which I found interesting yet strange because I would have thought it was something said by St. Paul and taught by the Fathers. Even though it is not a defined dogma, it is unwise to go write against what has been taught for a long time. 

I remember when I went to my parish on Good Friday in 2019 (where they celebrated the pre-1955 Holy Week liturgies), I was the only one in the entire parish who did not genuflect during the prayer for the Jєωs. I didn't feel awkward or out-of-place because, regardless of what mandates or changes are ever applied to that Good Friday liturgy, I will never genuflect for the Sуηαgσgυє of Satan.