Regarding the old missal Good Friday prayers for Jews, Rock shares the news that Pope Benedict will authorize offensive passages to be removed. Now if the Holy Father can think of a way to do the same for an eighteen-year-old speech, maybe his reinvitation to an Italian University will be more tranquil the next time around.
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Catholic Sensibility 
From the linked article:
“The 1990 speech in its entirety showed the protestors to have taken Cardinal Ratzinger’s words out of context.”
Gee, what a surprise. Obviously the dispute is not about a speech he gave when the protestors were in diapers. His appearance would have been an excuse to protest the Church in general and the very idea of a magisterium. While the Holy Father’s safety could probably have been secured, his dignity probably couldn’t have been. So he decided not to star in the circus they’d planned. For the sake of a minority of students and faculty, La “Sapienza” stands humiliated.
As for the change in the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews, well, it’s been changed before so in and of itself, a small change is within the Holy Father’s authority. Whether it is offensive to pray for the conversion to Christ of those who fail to accept Him as messiah, or whether it is offensive in a Christian prayer to describe those who deny Him as “blind” to Him is arguable, to say the least. In my opinion, the dropping of the misconstrued word “perfidious” should suffice to remove all offense, and this was done prior to 1962; if the Holy Father thinks otherwise, he will make a change, so be it. I do get nervous when changes, however small, are made in response to political considerations and antagonism, which by their nature beget further demands for change. One wonders what further changes the enemies of the TLM, emboldened by this, will demand next, and what justification could be put forward by the Holy Father for refusing such changes having made this one.
Having said all of that, I wouldn’t pop the cork on the Krug just yet, Todd; a few days ago there was a report that no such changes would be made and that this matter was of low priority.
If the Holy Father does change this prayer, here’s hoping his reformulated prayer will also be inserted into the novus ordo to replace the current Prayer for the Jewish People in the Good Friday service.