Mel Gibson: $5 Mil to Fringe Church (FOX attacks "antiquated Catholic ideology")

FOX ^ | Friday, February 20, 2004 | By Roger Friedman

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Mel Gibson's put his money where his mouth is. By now everyone in the world knows he's spent $25 million to make "The Passion of the Christ" and promised nearly $25M more to market it.

But what you may not know is that Gibson has also put up $5.1 million so far to run his own personal church near Malibu.

Last year Christopher Noxon wrote in The New York Times that Gibson had donated $2.3 million to make Holy Family Catholic Church in Agoura Hills, California a reality. Holy Family rejects the universally accepted teachings of the Second Vatican Conference and chooses to stick with antiquated Catholic ideology.

Bu it turns out that Gibson has donated a little more than twice that amount to Holy Family since 1999, according to federal tax filings. And that's not counting 2003, since the most recent report has not yet been filed.

Gibson and his wife Robyn are listed in federal tax records as directors of the Holy Family Catholic Church. The church is run out of Gibson's Icon Production company offices, with an Icon employee responsible for keeping the church's books.

The Gibsons' tax-free donations to Holy Family are made possible by a charity they established called the AP Reilly Foundation, which is named for Mel's late mother. The foundation was created on October 29, 1999 for the sole purpose of creating the church.

The church, by the way, has an unlisted phone number, keeps its address a secret and has asked those who have the information not to release it.

Gibson is no stranger to controversy when it comes to voicing his opinion about his religious beliefs. In a 1992 interview with the Spanish magazine El Pais, his comments about homosexuals — which cannot be printed here — caused an international stir.

In the same interview Gibson talked about the fact that his brand of Traditionalist Catholics did not subscribe to the Second Vatican Council's 1965 rulings on various subjects including who was responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.

[Maximilian]

How do you account for the one billion Catholics who belong to the Church today?

That's just the number of people who identify themselves as Catholics or who were born Catholic. But how many of those do even so much as the 6 basic things required of all Catholics such as attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of obligation, go to confession at least once per year, contribute to the support of the Church, fast and abstain on the required days, etc.?

The number of people who attend the Tridentine Mass in the United States is less than a million; the number of Catholics is over 62 million.

People aren't aware that there is an alternative. I wasn't aware of the alternative for many years. People feel trapped in their Novus Ordo hell where they get to hear heresy from the pulpit and off-key lounge singing accompanied by guitars. They just stop going. That has been the decision of the large majority of Catholics, "Just say no."

[dixiepatriot]

>>That is not true. You should recheck the facts.

No, YOU need to show me where he said that the Holocaust never took place. He never said that.

[sinkspur]

OK. Whatever.

[kittymyrib]

Isn't this the Muslim way as well?

[Texas2step]

I don't think he's denying that the Holocaust took place.

Dixie, please read up a little more before you make comments like this on threads such as these. Most people consider the revisionistic views of Hutton Gibson to be equal to Holocaust Denial - Christians and non-Christians. It's not like hutton's concerned over whether it was 5 million or 6 million, but whether it was in the millions at all, or even hundreds of thousands.

To me, that alone makes him crazy and a conspiracty nut. To Jews it is denying what actually took place. I'm pretty much in agreement that it is the equivalent.

It would be comparable to someone saying that a couple of people died in Vietnam, when we know for a fact that 58,000+ died, but worse because the Holocaust was not a war, it was genocide.

[Tribune7]

Gibson is not in union with Rome, though he will not come out and say so.

What does Rome say?

[A. Patriot]

No one in the Catholic Church is empowered to build his own chapels or separate himself from the Pope, which Gibson has done.

Almost sounds like the Protestant movement of Martin Luther.(ie:separation from the Roman Church because of disagreements in doctrine and practices.)

I think this is a good thing. The Roman Catholic Church is in need of MAJOR reforms (IMHO). It needs to go back to a time when its focus was on Holiness, not pedophilia and pederasty.

[sinkspur]

What does Rome say?

Nothing.

[Texas2step]

No, YOU need to show me where he said that the Holocaust never took place. He never said that.

Just in case af's taking a break...

His positions are indefensible and reprehensible to Jews as well as Christians. Very widely diseminated yesterday, and many, many times in the past. You ought to know what someone's views are before you defend them

[Texas2step]

me thinks thou dost protest too much

Yeah, he does tend to over react sometimes, and it's difficult to tell exactly which of his comments are sarcastic or not (af, you really need to use the '/sarcasm' tag!), but he's challenging something that ought to be challenged.

[harbingr]

'(Adopt a shelter dog or cat! You'll save one life, and maybe two!) 1998-07-18'
------------------------------------------

First of all, animals don't have Souls...but You do...you and your cabala
Make ME SICK......HERE is your Bio:..
'If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a Noisy Gong or a Clanging Cymbal'...1Cor13

signed,

'Harbingr'

Excerpt:...

Ephesians 6:11-12
11 "Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. 12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places...".

[carton253]

The invitation only could be to keep out the "celebrity hunters and gawkers." It would be hard to worship with the paparrazi circling like sharks. It would also be hard to worship if a celebrity like Mel Gibson becomes the center of attention.

[hobbes1]

See 36 for Romes opinion.

[dixiepatriot]

>>Most people consider the revisionistic views of Hutton Gibson to be equal to Holocaust Denial - Christians and non-Christians. It's not like hutton's concerned over whether it was 5 million or 6 million, but whether it was in the millions at all, or even hundreds of thousands. To me, that alone makes him crazy and a conspiracty nut. To Jews it is denying what actually took place. I'm pretty much in agreement that it is the equivalent.

I disagree. It's one thing to deny that the Holocaust happened. That's holocaust denial. It's quite another thing to question the "6 million" figure that is often quoted. I'm more concerned with historical fact than "offending" people.

Anti-semitism, like racism, is a term that is widely overused by leftists to smear their opposition. Such is the case with the study of the Holocaust. It has become taboo to question any aspect of it. You either buy the "6 million Jews" line or you're "anti-Semitic". In some countries, you can go to jail for daring to question certain aspects of the Holocaust. It's getting ridiculous.

[Texas2step]

Defending hutton's views is not wise, IMO.

In his interview on WSNR radio's Speak Your Piece, to be broadcast on Monday, Hutton Gibson, argued that many European Jews counted as death camp victims of the Nazi regime had in fact fled to countries like Australia and the United States.

"It's all - maybe not all fiction - but most of it is," he said

These are defensible statements? This is not denial? To me, it's absolutely loony, but to a Jew, yes, I beleive this is equal to denial.

[sinkspur]

First of all, animals don't have Souls...but You do...you and your cabala Make ME SICK......HERE is your Bio:..

You need a dog.

You'd be a much happier and nicer person.

[Texas2step]

Anti-semitism, like racism, is a term that is widely overused by leftists to smear their opposition. ... It has become taboo to question any aspect of it. You either buy the "6 million Jews" line or you're "anti-Semitic". ... It's getting ridiculous.

And, I agree with everyone statement from that comment. But, hutton's position is indefensible. It's perfect fine, IMO, to disagree over minutia. The difference between 5 million and 6 million.

Whether the non-Jews count as Holocaust victims, etc., etal, that, to me at least, is minutia. Hutton's comments are not over minutia.