The Conservative Judaism’s international assembly of rabbis expressed their concern this week about a revised Roman Catholic prayer which refers to the conversion of Jews. They voted a resolution so that the Vatican could make clear the meaning of the text.

The Latin Good Friday prayer suffered a revision by Pope Benedict XVI in which the Christians are asked to pray for the Jews so that they could acknowledge Jesus Christ.

The prayer written in Latin says: “Let us also pray for the Jews: That our God and Lord may illuminate their hearts, that they acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men. (Let us pray. Kneel. Rise.) Almighty and eternal God, who want that all men be saved and come to the recognition of the truth, propitiously grant that even as the fullness of the peoples enters Thy Church, all Israel be saved. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.”

On Tuesday the Rabbinical Assembly formed out of 1,600 members declared that it was “dismayed and deeply disturbed to learn of reports that Pope Benedict XVI has revised the 1962 text of the Latin Mass, retaining the rubric ‘For the conversion of the Jews,’” Los Angeles Times reports.

On Tuesday the assembly reached a resolution, after an hour of debates in two days, to   "seek clarification from the Vatican of the meaning and status of the new text."

On February 6, the Holy See's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, announced through a note by the Vatican Secretariat of State that the Good Friday prayer will be revised for the Jews included in the Roman Missal of 1962 and saying that the revised text will be used starting this year “in all celebrations of the Liturgy of Good Friday according to the aforementioned Missale Romanum".

Even thought the Latin prayer will be heard by few Roman Catholic congregations, Jewish assemblies expressed their frustration about the language, saying that it is a set back to the Jewish-Catholic ties after years of work to improve them.