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Story by: Jack Foley
AFTER months of deliberation, controversy and the unholiest of
holy rows, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ has finally
received the blessing of Pope John Paul II.
According to a report in the New York Daily News, the Pontiff
himself was shown a rough cut of the film, which depicts the last
12 hours of Jesus’ life in unflinching style.
The movie, starring Jim Caviezel and Monica Bellucci, and directed
by Gibson, has attracted criticism from Jewish groups, who fear
it blames Jews for the death of Christ and might be anti-Semitic,
and the Catholic church, who feared it may damage relations between
the two faiths.
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However, an audience from three different Vatican congregations
gave the film their blessing after being granted permission to
view an unfinished version of the print.
Reverend Augustine Di Noia, one of the officials who saw it,
confirmed: "There is absolutely nothing anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish
about Mel Gibson's film."
He also added that ‘it’s not just violent, it’s
brutal’.
Now that the project has received the approval of the church,
it might make it a little more easier for Gibson to find a US
distributor. As yet, no one has been willing to back it, given
that it is filmed almost entirely in ancient languages of Latin
and Aramaic. This is despite massive interest among movie fans
on the Internet.
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