Posted on 01/19/2004 12:22:07 PM PST by drstevej
POPE-PASSION Jan-19-2004 (360 words) xxxi
Pope never commented on Gibson's 'Passion' film, says papal secretary
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II never said "It is as it was" after watching Mel Gibson's film on the passion of Jesus, said the pope's longtime personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz.
"The Holy Father told no one his opinion of this film," the archbishop told Catholic News Service Jan. 18.
Archbishop Dziwisz watched the film in the pope's apartment with Pope John Paul and with the pope's second secretary in early December.
The film, "The Passion of the Christ," is Gibson's interpretation of the last 12 hours of Christ's life and is set for release in the United States Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday.
The alleged papal quote has appeared in hundreds of newspapers around the world as an unequivocal endorsement of Gibson's controversial film even though papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls refused to confirm the pope said it.
The film drew widespread attention even before it was finished, particularly because of concerns over how it would portray the Jews and its potential for promoting anti-Semitism.
The co-producer of the film, Steve McEveety, was in Rome in early December to host private screenings of a rough cut of the film for Vatican and other Catholic officials.
After the pope and Archbishop Dziwisz watched the film, the archbishop met with McEveety and with Jan Michelini, an assistant director of the film.
According to published reports, McEveety and Michelini said Archbishop Dziwisz told them the pope reacted positively to the film and said, "It is as it was."
But, Archbishop Dziwisz told CNS, "That is not true."
"I said clearly to McEveety and Michelini that the Holy Father made no declaration," the archbishop said.
"I said the Holy Father saw the film privately in his apartment, but gave no declaration to anyone," he said. "He does not make judgments on art of this kind; he leaves that to others, to experts."
"Clearly, the Holy Father made no judgment of the film," he said.
News stories containing the alleged papal quote have been posted on the official Web site of the film: www.thepassionofthechrist.com.
END
Colleen ... I must be more naive than even I ever thought. CBS has just done a segment on the Vatican and Mel Gibson, on their national news. Ironically, I almost posted a story today that was running on ABC's web site entitled: "The Worst is Yet To Come According To Mel Gibson".
In the web story, Gibson predicts that as the film draws closer to theater release, the media will do all in their power to denigrate him. Tonight on the CBS news, that is precisely what they have done! They interviewed an Evangelical minister as he came out of a private showing of the film in Orlando. That was followed by an interview with some Jewish journalist. The entire premise between both interviews was to stir up even more controversy and convey the impression that it is "an interpretation", rather than fact.
They wasted no time showing film footage of the church under construction by Gibson, and noting that he was a member of a 'run away' catholic sect. It was so insidious and designed to malign not only Gibson, but all christians.
First dogmatic constitution on the Church of Christ
Pius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, with the approval of the Sacred Council, for an everlasting record.
1. The eternal shepherd and guardian of our souls [37], in order to render permanent the saving work of redemption, determined to build a Church in which, as in the house of the living God, all the faithful should be linked by the bond of one faith and charity.
2. Therefore, before he was glorified, he besought his Father, not for the apostles only, but also for those who were to believe in him through their word, that they all might be one as the Son himself and the Father are one
[38]. 3. So then, just as he sent apostles, whom he chose out of the world [39], even as he had been sent by the Father [40], in like manner it was his will that in his Church there should be shepherds and teachers until the end of time.
4. In order, then, that the episcopal office should be one and undivided and that, by the union of the clergy, the whole multitude of believers should be held together in the unity of faith and communion, he set blessed Peter over the rest of the apostles and instituted in him the permanent principle of both unities and their visible foundation.
5. Upon the strength of this foundation was to be built the eternal temple, and the Church whose topmost part reaches heaven was to rise upon the firmness of this foundation
[41]. 6. And since the gates of hell trying, if they can, to overthrow the Church, make their assault with a hatred that increases day by day against its divinely laid foundation, we judge it necessary, with the approbation of the Sacred Council, and for the protection, defense and growth of the Catholic flock, to propound the doctrine concerning the 1. institution, 2. permanence and 3. nature of the sacred and apostolic primacy, upon which the strength and coherence of the whole Church depends.
7. This doctrine is to be believed and held by all the faithful in accordance with the ancient and unchanging faith of the whole Church.
8. Furthermore, we shall proscribe and condemn the contrary errors which are so harmful to the Lord's flock.
<>end of quote<>.
Your little schism is just the latest (not the greatest) war against Divinely-Constituted authority. You and your ilk are doomed.
Have a nice day.
Sheesh.
IT'S A MOVIE.
Why do you assume The Pope was misquoted?
Strange to call an event commemorating the deaths of some 44,000,000+ babies "joyous."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36749
"We received written permission to publicize the pope's comment on the film, 'It is as it was,'" said [Gibson] spokesman Alan Nierob. "Unless we receive an official indication to the contrary, we will continue to stand by the statement."
[My emphasis --Dajjal]
And it is a joyous experience to see people from all over the country coming together for the cause of the unborn baby and his right to life.
I was there on Thursday, as I've been many times before -- and I would never characterize the participants' mood as "joyous." Too many picket signs with photos of babies' tossed into waste buckets. Too many coffins with annual death rates printed on the sides. And waaay too much depression at having to trudge through the cold yet again after thirty-one years of murder with the politicians as deaf as ever.
The women from Silent No More, the featured organization this year, did not seem very "joyous."
That's what the mood is like at the March. Some people reciting the rosary together, some singing "Amazing Grace," some shouting "Hey hey ho ho Roe v. Wade has got to go," while many are silent or chatting with friends. On placards and leaflets and flags and coffins are reminders of the enormity and barbarism of the culture of death -- and the determination to see the sanctity of Life protected once again by the rule of law.
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