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I believe he is SSPX. Some people I know see him and his family at Mass at their SSPX chapel. According to my daughter, his own daughter is preparing to enter an SSPX convent. I had heard she was contemplating something like this, but still am not certain it was SSPX and not another traditionalist order.

I think it's significant that it took a traditionalist like Gibson to make The Passion. I read Cardinal George's grudging comments on the film after seeing a rough version--which he admits was powerful and moving. It said a lot to me about where the bishops are coming from. It was the American bishops who received the stolen copy of an early script and immediately gave it to liberal Boston University professors to look over. They, of course, found it to be politically incorrect and joined forces with ADL to smear the film and Gibson. The faith itself always seems to take a back seat with this crowd.

In the end, I believe Gibson will achieve what he has intended--to move and inspire millions of Christians all over the world. I also believe the film will be a blockbuster success--and perhaps break records. It certainly appears it will become a classic, shown over and over to each generation. This is because it does not sentimentalize or prettify what happened but is as powerful as it is beautiful.

The two men--Gibson and Caviezel--are both devout Catholics. Gibson's films--The Patriot, in which he starred, and Braveheart, which he directed--are bold and visionary. Both dealt with horrendous suffering and heroic transcendence. So he would be the perfect director to tell a story like this. Caviezel would seem to be the perfect actor to have played Christ--a man who is the exact age of Jesus at his death and who could combine acting talent with the required spiritual profundity--surely an exceedingly rare combination in most actors. In this sense the film is a miracle and will provide a major corrective to the relentless attacks on Christianity that normally emanate from the entertainment industry.