Posted on 03/31/2003 5:28:35 AM PST by dead
Movie makers know that a dose of pre-release controversy can work wonders for their films at the box office. But even such modern marketing techniques don't quite explain the flak Mel Gibson is drawing over the film he is making based on the final hours in the life of Jesus.
Called The Passion, the movie has been directed, co-written, and largely privately financed by Gibson who says it will be an authentic - and graphic - presentation of the gospel story even to the point of having the actors speak exclusively in Latin and Aramaic.
The Passion has been panned in advance by some critics who say the story has been done to death. Some reports have linked it to Gibson's religious beliefs with one scathing attack recently suggesting he is peddling an outmoded theology favoured by "conspiracy-minded Catholics, mystics, monarchists and disaffected conservatives".
The film has also raised concerns among Jewish groups who fear it will revive the charge that Jews are collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
Gibson went so far as to claim, in a March 14 interview with an American Catholic cable network, that "the other world" was "warring" with him to prevent his retelling how Jesus died a horrible death for the sake of humanity.
The real war Gibson has joined, however, is a culture war within the Catholic Church which is spilling across the frontiers of inter-religious dialogue.
Gibson has never made a secret of his Catholicism or of the particular variety of the faith with which he feels comfortable. This is a traditionalist Catholicism that is deeply suspicious of the changes brought about in the church by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and determined to retrieve a sense of its own separateness from the world.
He was quoted in Time magazine in January as arguing that Vatican II had "corrupted" the church.
"Look at the fruits," Gibson had said, "dwindling numbers and pedophilia."
This ignores the fact that attendance levels at Mass now are about what they were a century ago (high attendance levels in the decades before 1960 were the anomaly), that many cases of clerical sexual abuse go back well beyond the past 40 years, and that it was Vatican II which encouraged Catholics of Gibson's generation to take the study of the Bible seriously.
Gibson is also a devotee of the Latin Mass - he is said to attend daily in his private chapel - which Vatican II replaced by Mass celebrated in the vernacular.
Vatican II reasoned that the adoption of Latin as the universal language of the church in the fourth century was merely a concession to the times and that by conducting Mass in the language of the participants they could take a more active part in the ceremony.
But active involvement brings with it differences of opinion and outlook. It was such differences, taken to their extreme by Protestant reformers and also by those Catholics who sought to counter the Reformation, that led to the Council of Trent in the 16th century. The council sought to impose order amid the chaos by, among other things, standardising the Mass. This became known as the Tridentine Rite, commonly referred to as the Old Latin Mass.
Among traditionalists the popularity of this Mass is essentially an expression of support for the type of church that produced it - one that placed a premium on order, stability and certainty rather than innovation, participation and inclusiveness. Its appeal has very little to do with any inherent beauty associated with the Latin language.
This explains why clerics such as Bishop Daniel Dolan, who ministers to traditionalist Catholics in Cincinnati, told The New York Times recently that for Gibson "to put the weight of his Hollywood celebrity behind the truth that the whole modern church structure is rotten to the core is excellent". (Dolan was ordained by a French archbishop who broke with Rome over Vatican II and was later excommunicated.)
The symbolic importance of the Latin Mass also explains why Gibson, and by extension the publicity for his views The Passion will attract, draws criticism from mainstream Catholics and from non-Catholics who are thankful that the church finally embraced the modern world and all its complexity in the 1960s.
The moral for Gibson is obvious: if you are going to be a combatant, expect to be shot at from time to time.
The message for everyone else is simple: celebrities are entitled to their opinions but, for all the influence they wield, their views are no more valid than anybody else's.
It wasn't like they won them in a lottery, they wrote the hymns.
As a traditionalist Catholic deeply suspicious of the changes brought about in the church by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, I agree with Mr. Gibson that our current problems with "dwindling numbers and pedophilia" can be traced to the Vatican II era -- not the the teachings of the Council itself, but to the spirit of accommodation with the world so rampant in the 1960s that accompanied it. The proof is in the pudding: parishes and dioceses that cling to the authentic and ancient practice of the Faith are thriving, while those that offer worshippers the thin gruel of quasi-Protestant practices are losing members like sieves. In our parish, all three of our Sunday masses are packed (SRO on holidays) and even our Thursday morning mass is respectably attended. Why? Because Our Lord is adored there: His sanctuary is front and center, His Body and Blood are respected (communion on the tongue only from the hands of our priest while kneeling at an altar rail), and we have a proper crucifix (carried by an altar BOY) -- not a "ressufix" or Protestant cross -- displayed prominently among the beautiful statues, censers, and stained glass of our modest but dignfied church.
When it comes to religious faith, people want the Real Thing. Offer it to them and they will come. If this film offers viewers a glimpse of the real Jesus and his incomparable and saving sacrifice, it will succeed -- no matter how many detractors Hell sends against it. Kudos to Mr. Gibson for making his film his way.
What can you say?
And for the analysts:
This ignores the fact that attendance levels at Mass now are about what they were a century ago (high attendance levels in the decades before 1960 were the anomaly)
A century ago. Hilarious.
Jesus was a Jew, his people were Jews, and he died for the Jews. SO WHY THE JEWS SHOULD FEAR. If God wanted Jesus to be someone else, Jesus would have been Roman, or Greek, or Egyptian or any other nationalities, but not, God wanted his Son to be what God felled himself to be.
Being a Catholic doesn't mean holding a sward but a cross.
Let Jesus rest in peace, so humanity can go on living in peace.
As a Catholic I am holding Jesus Heart.
Seriously, for every film on Christ, there are 50 on prostitute murders. For every film on Christ, there are a hundred films on adulterous affairs. For every film on Christ, there are hundreds of films on boy meets girl. Yet, they don't use the phrase, "done to death" when another romance or murder film is made. Pure hypocrisy.
even to the point of having the actors speak exclusively in Latin and Aramaic.
Oh boy. Must not have been room for the language of the Apostles or of Christ. Greek must have been too minor to deal with. I like Gibson; but, If this is what is considered authentic, I may have to watch it with a barf bag in tow.
A particular area with a particular bishop who was "not far sighted enough." No evidence there that all bishops nationwide had that failing.
Check out Fr. Z at What Does the Prayer Really Say?
He has done this weekly column for the last few years, covering the official prayers in the Mass for each week (The first year he did the opening prayer, the second the "prayer over the gifts." This year he is doing the post-communion prayer.) It is quite clear that much is lacking in the official translations, especially where ideas of grace or sacrifice are encountered.
We deserve much better, more-faithful-to-the-text translations.
As an example, here is the last one given on the website, for the second Sunday of Lent:
LITERAL TRANSLATION: (done by Fr. Z)
As we are now grasping, O Lord, the glorious transforming sacrament,
we are busy offering thanks to you,
for you are granting us, placed here on earth,
to be participants of the heavenly mysteries now at this very moment.
ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR): (what we hear at Mass)
Lord,
we give thanks for these holy mysteries
which bring to us here on earth
a share in the life to come.
This is not a particularly egregious translation, the basic ideas are there. But still, a side-by-side comparison shows that we are not getting anywhere near the full ideas expressed in the Latin original of the prayer.
SD
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