LOS ANGELES, February 12, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A flurry of news and activity is preceding the February 25 release date of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Theatres around the world have been inundated with calls requesting group showings of the film, with, in some cases, whole theatres being booked – only permitted after the opening week. Even though faithful Jews such as Michael Medved and Rabbi Daniel Lapin have panned the charge of anti-Semitism flung at Gibson and his film (https://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.17815/article_detail.asp ), the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in anticipation of the film, is nevertheless publishing a collection of key documents of Catholic teaching on the Church’s relationship to the Jews and its opposition to anti-Semitism. (https://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2004/04-024.htm ) The Motion Picture Association of America has assigned the film an R rating for graphic violence. Gibson himself has advised against young children viewing the film.
Newsweek covers the film in its current issue which, apart from an interview with star Jim Caviezel, mostly bashes the film. Caviezel told Newsweek that it has been “frustrating” to watch Gibson being accused of anti-Semitism. “I can tell you this much, the guy is not in the least anti-Semitic. I never saw it,” he says. “Maia Morgenstern [who plays the Virgin Mary] is this beautiful Jewish Romanian actress whose parents were in the Holocaust. Every day he’d say, “Maia, tell me about your traditions. Is this OK to do?” He wanted to make this film very Semitic.” He concluded, “I believe that when all my Jewish brothers see this film, they will realize that it’s not about assigning blame. It’s about love. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about forgiveness and hope,” he says. Caviezel also recounts being struck by lightning while shooting the Sermon on the Mount. “About four seconds before it happened it was quiet, and then it was like someone slapped my ears,” he says. “I had seven or eight seconds of, like, a pink, fuzzy color, and people started screaming. They said I had fire on the left side of my head and light around my body. All I can tell you is that I looked like I went to Don King’s hairstylist.” When asked whether playing the role has deepened his faith, Caviezel says he loves Christ “more than [he] ever knew possible.”“I love him more than my wife, my family. There were times when I was up there [on the cross], and I could barely speak. Continual hypothermia is so excruciating. I connected to a place I could have never, ever gone. I don’t want people to see me. All I want them to see is Jesus Christ.” Praised by the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and countless priests and ministers of all Christian denominations, the film has been seen as an awesome tool for evangelization. While such measures are numerous within Evangelical Protestant circles, the film has even normally reticent North American Catholics in the evangelical mood. A recent venture called the “Catholic Passion Outreach” is loaded with free downloads and materials to use Gibson’s masterpiece to draw people to the film’s central character. ( https://passion.catholicexchange.com/ )