A senior Vatican official last night praised Mel Gibson’s film about the life of Jesus Christ, despite concerns from Jewish groups that the movie will promote anti-Semitism.
Christians say the unreleased film is a powerful depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life. But Jewish leaders say it suggests Jews were responsible for the death of Christ and could trigger anti-Semitic crimes.
Archbishop John Foley, an American based in Vatican City, said yesterday that he hoped to show the film, The Passion, in the Vatican and doubted whether criticism of the movie was valid. "From what I could see of the trailers, it seemed to be an excellent film," Foley said.
"I don’t think they would be well-founded criticisms because all the material in the film comes directly from the Gospel accounts.
"There’s nothing in the film that doesn’t come from the Gospel accounts. So, if they’re critical of the film, they would be critical of the Gospel. It was very faithful to the Gospel."
The archbishop has, of course, put his finger on the real issue: the desire of certain people—Jewish and otherwise—to forever damn the Gospels and Christianity as inherently, by their very nature and focus, anti-Semitic.
Put another way, Catholics can apologize all they want for the anti-Semitic language and actions of certain Catholics over the centuries, but it will never be enough. Only the elimination, or radical restructuring (e.g., turning Catholicism into an emasculated, groveling form of Unitarianism), of the Catholic Church will suffice. Easter 2004, when "The Passion" is scheduled for release, promises to be a contentious time.
