Posted on 11/03/2003 8:27:06 AM PST by Brian S
November 3, 2003
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
When a private viewing of Mel Gibson's ''The Passion of Christ'' was completed at a Washington hotel 10 days ago, my wife and I along with a dozen other invited guests were emotionally frozen into several minutes of silence. The question is whether public presentation of the film four months hence shall be welcomed by tumultuous demonstrations outside the theaters.
Hollywood actor Gibson, who spent more than $25 million of personal funds to produce ''The Passion,'' has finally found a distributor to begin its showing Feb. 25 -- Ash Wednesday. A campaign by some Jewish leaders to radically edit the film or, alternatively, prevent its exhibition appears to have failed. This opens the door to religious conflict if the critics turn their criticism into public protest.
That is not because of the content of ''The Passion.'' As a journalist who has actually seen what the producers call ''a rough cut'' of the movie and not just read about it, I can report it is free of the anti-Semitism that its detractors claim. The Anti-Defamation League and its allies began attacking the movie on the basis of reading a shooting script without having actually seen the film. The ADL carries a heavy burden in stirring religious strife about a piece of entertainment that, apart from its artistic value, is of deep religious significance for believing Christians.
The agitation peaked in early August when New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind told a rally: ''This film is dangerous for Jews all over the world. I am concerned that it would lead to violence against Jews.''
Hikind had not viewed the film. After an ADL representative viewed a rough cut, longtime ADL director Abraham Foxman on Aug. 11 declared the movie ''will fuel hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism.'' Foxman called on Gibson to change his film so that it would be ''free of any anti-Semitic message.''
This renews the dispute over the Jewish role in the crucifixion of Christ, the source of past Jewish persecution.
''The Passion'' depicts in two hours the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life. To watch him beaten, scourged and crucified so graphically is a shattering experience for believing Christians and surely for many non-Christians as well. It makes previous movie versions of the crucifixion look like Hollywood fluff. Gibson wants to avoid an ''R'' rating, but violence is not what bothers Foxman.
Foxman and other critics complain that the Jewish high priest Caiphas and a Jewish mob are demanding Christ's execution, but that is straight from the Gospels.
Father C. John McCloskey, director of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, told me: ''If you find the Scriptures anti-Semitic, you'll find this film anti-Semitic.''
Complaints by liberal Bible scholars that ''The Passion'' is not faithful to Scripture are rejected by the Vatican. Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who heads the Congregation for the Clergy, called the film ''a triumph of art and faith,'' adding: ''Mel Gibson not only closely follows the narrative of the Gospels, giving the viewer a new appreciation for those biblical passages, but his artistic choices also make the film faithful to the meaning of the Gospels.''
As for inciting anti-Semitism, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos contended ''the film does nothing of the sort.'' This Vatican official is denying that Gibson violates the 1965 papal document Nostra Aetate, which states: ''What happened in [Christ's] passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.''
No such libel is committed by ''The Passion,'' where the mob's Jewish identity is not specified. As a Catholic convert, I was taught we are all sinners who share in guilt for the crucifixion.
At the heart of the dispute over ''The Passion'' is freedom of expression. Liberals who defended the right to exhibit Martin Scorsese's ''The Last Temptation of Christ,'' which deeply offended orthodox Christians, now demand censorship of ''The Passion of Christ.'' As a result, Abe Foxman and his allies have risked stirring religious tensions over a work of art.
My dad was Polish. At age 16 he was put into forced labor and eventually pressed into military service. (He deserted in Italy and joined up with a Polish regiment there). His father was a civil engineer and was shot for refusing to help rebuild a bridge blown up by the Polish underground. My grandmother was sent to "Germany" and never returned. About half of my father's family was wiped out after the invasion of Poland was completed.
On August 22, 1939, a few days before the official start of World War II, Hitler authorized his commanders, with these infamous words, to kill "without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the living space [lebensraum] we need".Heinrich Himmler echoed Hitler's decree:
"All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles."
On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from three directions. Hitler's invincible troops attacked from the west, the north and the south. Poland never had a chance. By October 8, 1939, Polish Jews and non-Jews were stripped of all rights and, were subject to special legislation. Rationing, which allowed for only bare sustenance of food and medicine was quickly set up.
Young Polish men were forcibly drafted into the German army. The Polish language was forbidden. Only the German language was allowed. All secondary schools and colleges were closed. The Polish press was liquidated. Libraries and bookshops were burned. Polish art and culture were destroyed. Polish churches and snyagogues were burned. Most of the priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Street signs were either destroyed or changed to new German names. Polish cities and towns were renamed in German. Ruthless obliteration of all traces of Polish history and culture.
Hitler's Goal: Terrorize Polish People Into Subservience. Hundreds of Polish community leaders, mayors, local officials, priests, teachers, lawyers, judges, senators, doctors were executed in public.
Much of the rest of the so-called Intelligentsia, the Polish leading class, was sent to concentration camps where they later died.
The first mass execution of World War II took place in Wawer, a town near Warsaw, Poland on December 27, 1939 when 107 Polish non-Jewish men were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and shot.
This was just the beginning of the street roundups and mass executions that continued throughout the war.
At the same time, on the eastern border of Poland, the Soviet Union invaded and quickly conquered. Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland in half. The western half, occupied by the Nazis, became a new German territory: "General Gouvernment". The eastern half was incorporated within the adjoining Russian border by Soviet "elections". This new border "realignment" conferred Soviet citizenship on its new Polish inhabitants. And all young Polish men were subject to being drafted into the Soviet army.
Just like the Nazis the Soviets also reigned terror in Poland. The Soviets took over Polish businesses, Polish factories and destroyed churches and religious buildings. The Polish currency (zloty) was removed from circulation. All Polish banks were closed and savings accounts were blocked.
During the period of the Holocaust of World War II, Poland lost:
45% of her doctors,
57% of her attorneys
40% of her professors,
30% of her technicians,
more than 18% of her clergy
most of her journalists.Poland's educated class was purposely targeted because the Nazis knew that this would make it easier to control the country.
Non-Jews of Polish descent suffered over 100,000 deaths at Auschwitz. The Germans forcibly deported approximately 2,000,000 Polish Gentiles into slave labor for the Third Reich. The Russians deported almost 1,700,000 Polish non-Jews to Siberia. Men, women and children were forced from their homes with no warning. Transferred in cattle cars in freezing weather, many died on the way. Polish children who possessed Aryan-looking characteristics were wrenched from their mother's arms and placed in German homes to be raised as Germans.
The Polish people were classified by the Nazis according to their racial characteristics. The ones who appeared Aryan were deported to Lodz for further racial examination. Most of the others were sent to the Reich to work in slave labor camps. The rest were sent to Auschwitz to die. Polish Christians and Catholics were actually the first victims of the notorious German death camp. For the first 21 months after it began in 1940, Auschwitz was inhabited almost exclusively by Polish non-Jews. The first ethnic Pole died in June 1940 and the first Jew died in October 1942.
Because of the obliteration of the Polish press by the Nazis, most of the world was not aware, including many parts of Nazi-occupied Poland, of the atrocities going on. Even to this day, much documentation of the Holocaust is not available. The entire records of Auschwitz were stolen by the Soviets and not returned. It was Hitler's goal to rewrite history.
The Nazis destroyed books, monuments, historical inscriptions. They began a forceful campaign of propaganda to convince the world of the inferiority and weakness of the Polish people and likewise, their invincible superiority and power
Because it is ok to be anti-catholic on this website, but anything but 100% agreement with Jews on all issues is somehow antisemetism.
If the church has a "doctrinal inability" to see Jews as worthy as Christians, then be assured that it is a human failing on the part of some Christians, and not a teaching that has been given from Christ.
I am an evangelical, and it would be hard to overstate the level of devotion that my brethren have for Jews and Israel. We want to witness to them and help ISrael when we can, mostly because we recognize Jesus as a Jewish Messiah, and Christianity as a distinctly Jewish faith.
Uh, no.
The movie was NEVER supposed to be 12 hours long. As was said earlier, it is about the last 12 hours of Christ's life.
I backed up four of my allegations with responsible cites in the post to which you are now responding.
Is FDR the Vicar of Christ--the voice of Christ on earth?
The New York Times editorial
12/25/41 (Late Day edition, p. 24)
A summary, with extensive cites, from the Jewish Virtual library of the concern, which remains largely unaddressed by these glowing quotes and testimonials:
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/anti-semitism/pius.html
The glaring fact is, Pacelli worked hard for accords to shut up about the jews, and kept his part of the bargain, holding back the official Voice of Jesus on the subject, even after his ascention, upon hearing about Kristalnacht, allowing his priests to administer to the German army, allowing his churches to continue to provide the SS with marriage and birth documents, as per agreement, until the xmas address of 42 while 6 million jews were starved enslaved, humiliated, tortured, in a manner undreamt of by Torquimada, and then killed as cheaply and inhumanely as possible. How many of the polish victims of Hitler were vivisected, urinated on in cattle cars, skinned, forced to eat faeces, leg-tied while giving birth, sent naked into "showers" to watch their children and parents choke to death in front of them?
The pope saved a comparative handful of the jews that were condemned by Hitler--but that is not a defense against the sobriquet of Pius the Silent, which he properly earned, no matter how loudly, frequently and self-righteously you repeat it.
So, what's your point in this argument? If a serial killer explains to the judge that he is actually guilty of other crimes, should the judge let him off for the crime he's being tried for?
Please see the post above. You do not need to be an historian to see what the accords say, and to note that they were honored by Pius XII. Please cease this slight-of-hand argument. It is not a defense of the Pope in this matter to note that he saved some jews--it is a bait&switch rhetorical tactic.
Nah, your arguments have already been thumped, no matter how loudly, frequently and self-righteously you repeat it.
But I'm certain you already knew this. You just can't help but spin to make the Church look bad. Agenda much?
860,000/6,000,000 is a ratio barely above the noise-level of speaker hiss. The Vicar of Christ can order the excommunication of any catholic participating in an unholy act. The Vicar of Christ can order german church marriage and birth records destroyed. The Vicar of Christ can, and did, sign documents committing the Holy See to silence regarding "polltical" questions in Germany. Yes or no? It's a pretty simple question, really. Amazing how hard it is to get a straight answer to it.
No, what really matters to me is what the Voice of Jesus chooses to do, or, in this case, not do--because it is emblematic of the churches ADMITTED role in fostering anti-jewish sentiment for the last 1400 years leading up to the holocaust. Pius XII saved a few jews that the anti-jewish policies of his church inevitably fostered.
Make no bones about this--it is solid part of history, from the massacres of jews by the crusaders, onward. And in 1999, I think it was, the church issued a massive mea culpa called "We Remember" to document it's failure toward the jews. Pius' silence is a part of that failure, and no amount of handwringing at me will change that.
I was one of the first contributors to this web site, I was born catholic, and "disrupter" is an inappropriate epithet for someone who disagrees with you.
Anyone reading the documentation posted by you, Qwinn, and others will be impressed by the depth of your evidence
or, possibly, the distracting nature of said evidence which, while voluminous, has not generally answered the concern posed.
and the rather shrill nature of the attack...
uh huh. Could you point to an example of the "shrill nature of the attack?"
My arguments have been avoided and ignored, with a massive amount of largely irrelevant documentation in support of basic points that would get you laughed out of court. Nobody's denying the Pope was a nice guy whose heart was in the right place, and that's basically the "evidence" I've been "thumped" with. This will fly at testimonial dinners, but it won't fly before the court, which likes to see evidence, like, for example, what the Accords between Germany and the Holy See actually said, relevant to jews--which was, I'll remind you, "We'll shut up about the jews, if you treat us nice.".
No, the question has been avoided a dozen times.
Why didn't the Pope take the most extreme actions that he could, like excommunicating millions or declaring a state of "war" with no standing army? For the same reasons the Red Cross didn't either.
The Red Cross is not the Voice of Jesus.
It would have saved not one single life,
That is utter bilge, lutheren prelates in northern countries spoke up, and it clearly saved lives. The Pope spoke up about the eugenics program, and it was halted. I suspect he reason you can swallow this notion is your mistaken perception that Germany was not a heavily catholic country with catholic solders.
every Jew alive at the time recognized the need for silence on the part of those trying to help them,
This is true for anonymous citizens harboring jews. It is irrelevent for the Vicar of Christ.
and it would have made it impossible for Catholics to help the Jews they did. A million more Jews would be dead today - plus untold more Catholics as well, though it's quite obvious they don't matter to you.
Were catholics decimated following the churches' refusal to hand over birth and marriage records of converted jews? Was there even closure of churches following the Pope's protest over the gassing of the infirm? You are guessing, and, looking at contemporary history, you are guessing wrong.
I know you think it's more important to be the "Voice" of Christ than the "Hand" of Christ.
Yes, I think it is way more important. Everybody catholic is potentially a "hand" of christ, if the Voice of Christ demands those hands. When the Voice of Christ is silent, all the "hands" have to go on is the record, and the record includes 1400 years of jewish forced ghettos, ordered by the Pope, jewish armbands, invented by a Pope. anti-jewish Holy Week sermons which routinely precipitated pograms for nearly 400 years. Church kidnappings of jewish children to be brought up catholic. A previous century in which the official newspaper organs of the church regularly lambasted jews for refusing to recognise Jesus as savior, while knowing OF Jesus. 1400 years of Mathhew's witness every easter from church pulpits.
It's more important to speak out and be impotent to save a million lives than to tone down useless rhetoric that would have accomplished nothing more than his statements already had, and instead risk their own lives to save them.
Unlikely on the record and impossible to prove.
He spoke out to the whole world that racism was wrong a great many times, covered in front page headlines across the world. If there were Catholics who chose to totally ignore that, I'm not sure how excommunicating them would have suddenly made them say - "Oh, gee, I ignored the Pope when I was Catholic, but gee whillickers, I better start listening to the Pope now that I'm not Catholic anymore!"
The Pope can excommunicate acts or behaviors, if you don't think this deters catholics from said acts or behaviors, you are supremely out of touch with how the catholic world works.
Or are you Once again proffering the absurd notion that Germany suddenly became a non-christian country during WWII? This is not remotely true, whatever Hitler's musing on this subject might have been.
It would have accomplished nothing except to get more Jews and Catholics killed
Again, unprovable, and unlikely on the record regarding similar situations.
- but hey, 60 years later, -you- would have respected it more. I'm personally far happier he chose the way he did.
That's your opinion, and you have a right to it.
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