To the Editor:

In response to the July 18 article, "A church's assertive shift toward tradition," the Anti-Defamation League and its National Director, Abraham H. Foxman, have taken no position on the wider use of the Latin mass. Rather, the ADL's concern is with the Vatican's sanction of the wider use of a prayer to convert Jews that is included in the 1962 Latin Good Friday liturgy, which has been confirmed by leading Roman Catholic liturgists with whom we have consulted. In 1970, the prayer for the conversion of Jews, which refers to Jews as being blind and living in darkness, was replaced by a positive prayer recognizing the Jews' eternal covenant with God, a principle to which Pope John Paul II was deeply committed.

It is the sanction of this offensive prayer to convert Jews, which contradicts Catholic teaching for the last 42 years since the Second Vatican Council, that Mr. Foxman referred to as "a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations."