St. Paul the Apostle School

Some people are trying to stir up another Catholic-Jewish conflict about the Mel Gibson film "The Passion." Some Jews are saying the film is another example of Christian anti-Semitism and will pour oil on the embers of hatred for Jews.

Others are saying Jews are acting as censors of artistic expression. And the film hasn't even appeared yet!
"What is the Catholic position on the film?" Jews angrily write via e-mail.
The church is expected to have a position on a film before its first debut in a theater? When was the last time the church had a position on anything in popular culture?

The few words the pope mumbled after he saw "The Passion" - if he really said them - are hardly an official Catholic position. Neither is the enthusiasm of the archbishop of Denver.
Nor can I understand why Mel Gibson would care about what the current pope says, since he is connected to a schismatic sect that claims the papacy has been vacant since the death of Pius XII. From this perspective Pope John Paul is an anti-pope.

So please don't blame us for the "The Passion." We didn't make it, we don't endorse it, we don't necessarily agree with it.
Many opinions will be expressed by Catholics about it, even by priests and bishops and the ineffable Catholic league. They are not official positions.

If you want an informed Catholic opinion, wait for the reaction of Catholic film critics, including my colleagues Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper, men of taste and intelligence and faith who will know what they're talking about.

The film reportedly is a literal and powerful re-presentation of St. John's Gospel account of the death of Jesus. In the Gospel, the phrase "the Jews" is used often.

Most contemporary scholars contend it means "the Jewish leaders" of the time. Certainly it cannot include such allies of Jesus as Joseph of Arimethea or Nicodemus. At the most then, it means "some Jews."
In the context of its own time, the Gospel was not anti-Semitic. It was not so much the cause of anti-Semitism as occasions for it seized on by those who were already anti-Semitic.

Catholicism does not believe in collective guilt. Some Jews and some Romans put Jesus to death. It does not follow that all Jews down through the centuries - or all Italians for that matter - are "Christ killers."
Jesus himself forgave those responsible on the cross with the words "forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing." That should settle the matter permanently.

Catholics cannot be anti-Semitic because spiritually we are Semites, because we belong to a Jewish religion.
That many Catholics have been down through history proves only that they were very poor Catholics.

If I were to see the film - and I probably won't - I'd look very carefully at the portrayal of the Jewish leaders in the film. If they are depicted as contemporary stereotypes of Jews, then I think the charge of anti-Semitism would be valid, but it would be an anti-Semitism of the filmmaker and his allies and not of the church.

If they are depicted as craven political leaders trying to curry favor with the occupying power, then the portrait might be historically valid.
It cannot be repeated too often that those who demand to know the "Catholic position" might harbor an anti-Catholic stereotype: Catholics think the way they are told to think.

The church may take stands on such issues as immigration and the war, but it long ago abandoned the Index of Forbidden Books and the Legion of Decency. When Catholics make their decisions about films and other cultural artifacts, they are thinking for themselves. Comments of priests and bishops are not official positions.

Give us a break and try to understand we are not now and were not ever the mammoth monolith of which you like to be afraid.
And now I'll settle back and wait for the e-mail attacks from those on both sides who want a fight.

©Fr. Andrew Greeley (Andrew M. Greeley, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, teaches at the University of Arizona part of the year. His e-mail is agreel@aol.com.)