Cardinal George Encourages People To See Gibson's Film

Chicago's Cardinal George Encourages People to See Gibson's Film
On Friday, Feb. 13 while attending a general meeting of Deanery III and IV priests and others, Albert Judy, O.P. (St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, River Forest, Illlinois) asked Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I. about the upcoming film, The Passion of the Christ. Here is the transcription from a digital recording:

Question: Albert Judy, O.P.

Is the archdiocese, especially the office of evangelization and catechesis prepared to take the maximum advantage of the movie that's about to appear, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ? I think it is going to be an incredible opportunity...it would be a shame if we are not able to take advantage of this event.

Response: Cardinal George, O.M.I.:

I have not seen the whole film. I have seen a rough cut, and from a cinematic point of view it is masterfully done. The images are so forceful, so powerful, that your imagination is changed. You live with new images of the passion. At least I did since seeing those images, without yet seeing how they come together in a film.

There is a priest in the archdiocese who has a lot of experience in filmmaking, and he has sent out to the parishes all the information on the film and how to participate in viewing it. I have sent out the documents from Rome and the USCCB on how to read the Passion stories in the Gospels. I would encourage people to see the film.

I would then say something else. We should see it not only as Christian believers; we should try to watch it with the eyes of the Jewish people.

The history of anti-Semitism, a very sorrowful history, has made many Jews very sensitive to any recognition that even some Jews were involved in the death of Jesus. Obviously some Jews were involved in the death of Jesus. He had enemies among his own people. His apostle Judas betrayed him and some of the leaders of the people were against him. Read the Gospels. At the same time, all Jesus' friends were Jews, as were the first apostles and disciples - everybody was a Jew within this story, except the Romans who, in fact, killed him. They killed him in their own fashion - a terrible execution, torture. And all of that torture is attributed to the Romans in the film.

But the push to have him condemned is attributed to some of the Jewish leaders, even though the Romans are primarily responsible. Jesus had enemies among his own people. He also had friends and disciples among his own people. Jesus was a Jew. And you can hardly tell the story of Jesus' life, certainly not the story of his death, without saying that some Jews did this and some Jews did that.

That very telling creates fear in the hearts of many Jewish people today. We should be aware of that even as we watch this film as Christians and are moved by it. We should try to think how a Jew [would] watch this. That's part of living as a community: we internalize the reactions of others, whether they're Jews or atheists or Protestants or Hindus. We try to live together. We have to be ourselves as Christians with the right to say, "Jesus is Lord;" but we have to say it in such a way that others don't take fright. That's the challenge of this film. I hope you'll see it, and I hope it will not harm interfaith relations.

Dominican Life
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