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Pope never commented on Gibson's 'Passion' film, says papal secretary
Catholic News ^ | Jan-19-2004 | Cindy Wooden

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
 


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; General Discusssion; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: gibson; passion; thepassionofchrist
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To: american colleen; NYer
Such a huge and joyous event and the regular media doesn't touch it at all.

Your indignation is entirely justified.   I think you could us a  smile.  Peace.
101 posted on 01/22/2004 3:59:40 PM PST by GirlShortstop
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To: american colleen; sandyeggo; Salvation; drstevej
Such a huge and joyous event and the regular media doesn't touch it at all. Wonder if they have an agenda?

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.

102 posted on 01/22/2004 4:05:24 PM PST by NYer ("One person and God make an army." - St. Teresa of Avila)
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To: ultima ratio
Session 4 : 18 July 1870

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.

103 posted on 01/22/2004 4:08:55 PM PST by Catholicguy (MT1618 Church of Peter remains pure and spotless from all leading into error, or heretical fraud)
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To: Tantumergo
Good Lord, man. Grab a 16 oz. can of perspective and crack it open.

Sheesh.

IT'S A MOVIE.

104 posted on 01/22/2004 4:10:43 PM PST by Catholicguy (MT1618 Church of Peter remains pure and spotless from all leading into error, or heretical fraud)
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To: Piers-the-Ploughman
I am sorry, and absolouetly No-DisRespect to Pope Paul but who cares what he says anyways...He is a Christian like any of us who love and worship Jesus Christ, the pope is a man with an opinion as we all have. This movie is for all who love out Lord and for the ones that don't know Jesus a chance to see what kind of sacrafice he has paid for there sins.
105 posted on 01/22/2004 4:14:52 PM PST by missyme
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To: GirlShortstop
That story is too funny! Thanks, I need that. ;-D
106 posted on 01/22/2004 4:20:15 PM PST by NYer ("One person and God make an army." - St. Teresa of Avila)
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To: Catholicguy
Nor am I obliged to attend an indult merely because the old Mass is provided. Much depends on the priest and his orthodoxy. You are sounding goofier and goofier, getting on my case with such obvious venom, though you are more absurd than you are offensive.
107 posted on 01/22/2004 4:35:05 PM PST by ultima ratio
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To: veronica
But hyping it by misquoting THE POPE??

Why do you assume The Pope was misquoted?

108 posted on 01/23/2004 3:22:40 PM PST by Terriergal ("arise...kill...eat." Acts 10:13)
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To: american colleen
Such a huge and joyous event and the regular media doesn't touch it at all.

Strange to call an event commemorating the deaths of some 44,000,000+ babies "joyous."

109 posted on 01/24/2004 1:23:24 AM PST by Dajjal
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To: NYer
Judging from Colleen's post #80, it's not only "the regular media" but also the nominally Catholic media that "will do all in their power to denigrate him [Gibson]."
110 posted on 01/24/2004 1:29:29 AM PST by Dajjal
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To: sweetliberty; NYer; american colleen
>"Did the Pope comment on Mel's film or not?"
I think he did, it's just that it was not meant to be official.

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]

111 posted on 01/24/2004 1:38:01 AM PST by Dajjal
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To: Dajjal
Isn't it joyous that the pro-life movement is growing in leaps and bounds every year? At some point, Roe v. Wade will be history. And look at the faces of the participants - happy, open and joyous and mostly young... contrast those faces to the few pro-abort protesters who stand on the side - dour and unhappy and old.

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.

112 posted on 01/24/2004 6:08:40 AM PST by american colleen
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To: american colleen
Isn't it joyous that the pro-life movement is growing in leaps and bounds every year?

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."

113 posted on 01/24/2004 7:44:36 AM PST by Dajjal
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To: Dajjal
OK, I guess I picked the wrong word... I haven't ever gone and haven't seen those graphic signs. What I see from my vantage point are thousands of people united and unrelenting in their perseverence to stop abortion. Everyone interviewed on EWTN was joyous - grateful to be there, mindful of why they are there, united in faith and so happy to be amongst people with the same moral values.
114 posted on 01/24/2004 4:44:12 PM PST by american colleen
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To: american colleen
People may be brought together by a murder trial and be "grateful to be there, mindful of why they are there, united in faith" and even -- in a sense -- "happy to be amongst people with the same moral values." But it would not commonly be said that they were "joyful" to be brought together over the violent death of some loved ones. Even if they smile or joke, beneath the thin surface there is a pervasive disquiet of the shared knowledge of the tragedy, joined to a (in this case desperate) hope for justice to prevail.

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.

115 posted on 01/24/2004 11:00:57 PM PST by Dajjal
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