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Bishop Fiorenza Statement on the Movie
I do not want to encourage or discourage
anyone from seeing Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ."
I have not seen it and will not offer an opinion about it.
However, the Catholic Church clearly teaches that neither the Jews
at the time of Christ nor Jews today can be charged with His death.
We sinners are the guilty ones for the crimes of His passion and
death. That is why we lovingly and reverently refer to Jesus
as "our Redeemer."
The passion and death of Jesus was a horrific human suffering and it is
essential to Christian identity and salvation. The gospels are clear that some
Jews called for His death. But from apostolic times, the Church has professed,
"He suffered under Pontius Pilate", a Roman governor. It would be tragic and
abhorrent for anyone to use this film to stir-up anti-Semitic feelings. We will
stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters in trying to prevent any resurgence
of anti-Semitism. I hope that Christians who see the movie will see themselves
as responsible for Christ's death and that it will be a profound spiritual
experience of repentance and conversion to a better Christian life.
Bishop Joseph A.
Fiorenza
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Obispo Fiorenza Declaración sobre la Película
No quiero animar
ni desanimar a nadie en ver la película de Mel Gibson, “La Pasión de
Cristo.” Yo no la he visto y no ofreceré una opinión sobre ella.
Sin embargo, la Iglesia Católica claramente enseña que ni a los
Judíos del tiempo de Cristo ni a los Judíos de ahora se les puede
hacer responsables de Su muerte. Nosotros, pecadores, somos los
culpables de los crímenes de Su pasión y muerte. Por eso es que nos
referimos a Jesús con tanto amor y reverencia como “nuestro Redentor.”
La pasión y muerte
de Jesús fue un sufrimiento horrendo y es esencial a la identidad y
salvación cristiana. Los evangelios son claros en decir que algunos
Judíos pedían Su muerte. Pero desde tiempos apostólicos, la Iglesia
ha profesado que “Sufrió bajo el poder de Poncio Pilato”, un
gobernador Romano. Sería trágico y detestable que alguien usara
esta película para provocar sentimientos anti-Semiticos. Nos
uniremos a nuestros hermanos Judíos para tratar de prevenir algun
resurgimiento anti-semitico. Espero que los cristianos que vean la
película se vean como los responsables de la muerte de Cristo y que
sea una experiencia espiritual profunda de arrepentimiento y
conversión a una vida cristiana mejor.
Obispo Joseph A.
Fiorenza
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CNS Review:
The Passion of the Christ
By Gerri Pare, David DiCerto and Anne Navarro
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- "The Passion of the Christ" (Newmarket) is an
uncompromising, interpretive dramatization of the final 12 hours of
Jesus' earthly life. Unflinching in its brutality and penetrating in
its iconography of God's supreme love for humanity, the film will
mean different things to people of diverse backgrounds. Co-writer,
producer and director Mel Gibson has undoubtedly created one of the
most anticipated and controversial films of recent times.
Like other films on Christ's life, "The Passion" does not simply
translate a single Gospel narrative onto the screen. Rather it is a
composite of the Passion narratives in the four Gospels embroidered
with nonscriptural traditions as well as the imaginative inspiration
of the filmmaker. The result is a deeply personal work of devotional
art -- a moving Stations of the Cross, so to speak.
However, by choosing to narrow his focus almost exclusively to the
passion of Christ, Gibson has, perhaps, muted Christ's teachings,
making it difficult for viewers unfamiliar with the New Testament
and the era's historical milieu to contextualize the circumstances
leading up to Jesus' arrest. And though, for Christians, the Passion
is the central event in the history of salvation, the "how" of
Christ's death is lingered on at the expense of the "why?"
The film employs a visceral, undiluted realism in its retelling of
the Passion, eschewing Sunday school delicacy in favor of
in-your-face rawness that is much too intense for children. That
notwithstanding, the movie is an artistic achievement in terms of
its textured cinematography, haunting atmospherics, lyrical editing,
detailed production design and soulful score. It loses nothing by
using the languages of the time, Aramaic and Latin, as the actors'
expressions transcend words, saying as much if not more than the
English subtitles.
The film opens with a distraught Jesus (Jim Caviezel) facing down
evil, personified as an androgynous being (played by Rosalinda
Celentano), in the mist shrouded garden of Gethsemane and progresses
to his death on the cross, followed by a fleeting, but poetically
economic, resurrection coda. Flashbacks of his public ministry and
home life in Nazareth with his mother, Mary (Maia Morgenstern),
pepper the action, filling in some of the narrative blanks.
Each flashback in the film is a welcome respite from the
near-incessant bloodletting, but more importantly for how it conveys
Jesus' core message of God's boundless love for humanity, a love
that does not spare his son death on the cross so that we might have
eternal life. More of these flashbacks would have been helpful in
fleshing out the life and teachings of Jesus.
Concerning the issue of anti-Semitism, the Jewish people are at no
time blamed collectively for Jesus' death; rather, Christ himself
freely embraces his destiny, stating clearly "No one takes it (my
life) from me, but I lay it down of myself" (John 10:18). By
extension, Gibson's film suggests that all humanity shares
culpability for the crucifixion, a theological stance established by
the movie's opening quotation from the prophet Isaiah which explains
that Christ was "crushed for our transgressions."
Catholics viewing the film should recall the teachings of the Second
Vatican Council's decree, "Nostra Aetate," which affirms that,
"though Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed
for the death of Christ, neither all Jews indiscriminately at that
time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed
during his passion."
Overall, the film presents Jews in much the same way as any other
group -- a mix of vice and virtue, good and bad. Yet while the
larger Jewish community is shown to hold diverse opinions concerning
Christ's fate -- exemplified by the cacophony of taunts and tears
along the Via Dolorosa -- it fails to reflect the wider political
nuances of first-century Judea. The scene of the stock frenzied mob
uniformly calling for Christ's crucifixion in Pilate's courtyard is
problematic, though once Christ begins his laborious way of the
cross Jewish individuals emerge from the crowd to extend kindness --
including Veronica wiping his face and Simon of Cyrene helping carry
the cross, as a chorus of weeping women lament from the sidelines.
However, the most visually distinctive representatives of Jewish
authority -- the high priest Caiphas (Matia Sbragia) and those in
the Sanhedrin aligned with him -- do come across as almost
monolithically malevolent. Caiphas is portrayed as adamant and
unmerciful and his influence on Pilate is exaggerated. Conversely,
Pontius Pilate (Hristo Naumov Shopov) is almost gentle with Jesus,
even offering his prisoner a drink. This overly sympathetic
portrayal of the procurator as a vacillating, conflicted and
world-weary backwater bureaucrat, averse to unnecessary roughness
and easily coerced by both his Jewish subjects and his
conscience-burdened wife, does not mesh with the Pilate of history
remembered by the ancient historians as a ruthless and inflexible
brute responsible for ordering the execution of hundreds of Jewish
rabble-rousers without hesitation.
However, while the members of the Sanhedrin are painted in
villainous shades, the film is abundantly clear that it is the
Romans who are Christ's executioners (a fact corroborated by both
the Nicene Creed and the writings of Tacitus and Josephus).
The Roman soldiers are unimaginably -- even gleefully-- sadistic in
flaying Jesus to within an inch of his life. "The Passion" is
exceedingly graphic in its portrayal of the barbarities of Roman
justice. According to Gibson, much of the visual grisliness of
Christ's suffering sprung from his own personal meditations on the
passion. As depicted, the violence, while explicit and extreme, does
not seem an end in itself. It is not the kind of violence made to
look exciting, glamorized or without consequences. It attempts to
convey the depths of salvific divine love. Nonetheless, viewers'
justifiable reaction is to be repelled by such unremitting
inhumanity. In the end, such savagery may be self-defeating in
trying to capture the imagination of the everyday moviegoer.
In contrast to Jesus' physical agony is the emotional desolation
seen in the figure of the Virgin Mary. When Mary utters, "When, how,
where, will you choose to be delivered from this?" the viewer is
pierced by the depth of Mary's understanding of Christ's divinity
and her sublime acceptance of seeing her son suffer. It tears at
one's heart to see Mary struggling to get close to Jesus as he walks
through the winding, narrow streets carrying the cross. Seeing him
suddenly fall, she is transported, along with the viewers, to
Christ's childhood, to a time when she was able to scoop him up when
he stumbled. When she finally reaches Jesus, and he is on the
ground, crushed by the weight of the cross, it is he who comforts
her with his words, "See, mother, I make all things new."
Morgenstern's portrayal of Mary is beautifully rendered, never more
so than in the Pieta-like tableau when Christ's body is laid in her
arms.
The juxtaposition of the wounded and bleeding body of Christ on the
cross with scenes of the Last Supper compellingly underscores how
the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ. Other indelible
images include a derided Jesus faltering under the weight of the
cross intercut with his earlier triumphant entry into Jerusalem and
a single raindrop -- a tear from heaven -- heralding Christ's death.
The power of the cross is also keenly conveyed. Jesus does not
recoil from either the horrific scourging at the hands of the Roman
soldiers or from carrying the burdensome cross. Instead, he declares
his "heart is ready" and embraces the cross as if comforting a
fallen sinner. These are truly moving and emotional points in the
film.
Cinematically, there are flaws as well as triumphs in Gibson's film,
such as a recurring tendency to slip into the horror-genre
conventions, including a scene of a guilt-wracked Judas being
taunted by little boys whose faces turn into those of grotesque,
macabre ghouls. And close-ups of Christ's scarred and mutilated body
are truly horrible.
For those coming to the film without a faith perspective it may have
little resonance. But for Christians, "The Passion of the Christ" is
likely to arouse not only passionate opinions, but hopefully a
deeper understanding of the drama of salvation and the magnitude of
God's love and forgiveness. It is not about what men did to God, but
what God endured for humanity.
Subtitles.
Because of gory scenes of scourging, torture and crucifixion, a
suicide and some frightening images, the USCCB Office for Film &
Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture
Association of America rating is R -- restricted.
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Pare is director, DiCerto is on the staff and Navarro is a
consultant for the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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