Interest in, controversy over 'Passion' movie continues to grow

Published: 2004-02-04

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ" neared its Feb. 25 release date, interest in the film grew, as well as the controversy surrounding it. An unidentified source close to Gibson told The New York Times Feb. 4 that Gibson would pull the line "His blood be on us and on our children" from the final version of the movie. The line from Matthew's Gospel, also known as the "blood libel," has been used for centuries to legitimize violence against Jews. The line had not been in a version of "The Passion of the Christ" screened in Washington in November, but it was inserted into a version shown Jan. 21 in Winter Park, Fla. Inclusion of the line made the Jan. 21 screened version "worse than the first" version he had seen last August in Houston, said Rabbi A. James Rudin, senior interreligious adviser for the American Jewish Committee, in a Jan. 30 commentary published by Religion News Service. Holy Names Sister Mary C. Boys, one of four Catholic scholars who reviewed a draft copy of the film script last year, told a Seattle University audience Feb. 1 that the scholars had never said Gibson or the film was anti-Semitic. "We said the film could be used to promote anti-Semitism," Sister Boys said. "That distinction seems to have eluded them (critics of the scholars)." Gibson has long insisted that neither he nor his movie is anti-Semitic.

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