|
News Items:
|
|
Headlines
|
|
News Briefs
|
|
Stories
|
|
Movies
|
|
Word To Life
|
|
Other Items:
|
|
Client Area
|
|
Links
|
|
CNS Stylebook
|
|
Archives:
|
|
Origins
|
|
.
|
|
Did You Know...
|
The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.
Get all the news!
If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250
|
|
.
|
|
Copyright:
|
The CNS news
report may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed,
including but not
limited to such
means as
framing or any
other digital
copying or
distribution
method, in whole
or in part without
the prior written
authority of
Catholic News
Service.
Copyright
(c) 2003
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
|
|
|
|
Story of the day:
|
PASSION-FOXMAN Feb-17-2004 (640 words) xxxi
Jewish leader visits Rome, discusses 'Passion' with Vatican officials
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The week before "The Passion of the Christ" was to open on U.S. movie screens, the U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League asked for a Vatican statement that the film does not reflect Catholic belief about the role of the Jews in the death of Jesus.
Abraham H. Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League official, was in Rome Feb. 16-18 on his way to a European conference on anti-Semitism. He said he wanted to use the opportunity to express his concerns about Mel Gibson's film and to seek a Vatican statement about it.
"I'm reaching out to the Catholic Church and saying, 'It's time for you to step up to the plate. Mr. Gibson is challenging your teaching,'" Foxman told Catholic News Service Feb. 17.
"He is marketing this film as the Gospel truth, the historic truth in a way contrary to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and church guidelines on the presentation of the Passion," Foxman said.
Vatican II said that Jesus' passion "cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today."
Foxman said the Anti-Defamation League was urging bishops' conferences around the world to repeat the council's teaching and to point out that "The Passion of the Christ" is "Mr. Gibson's version of the Gospel, not the Gospel version."
"For almost 2,000 years," he said, "four words -- 'The Jews killed Christ' -- were the rationale for anti-Semitism."
Foxman said he appreciated the fact that many Vatican officials and other Christian leaders felt the film cast the blame for Christ's death on all human beings and on their sins.
But many Jews experience the film differently, he said.
"At the end, they may feel that all are guilty, but there is a sense that the Jews are more guilty," he said.
Foxman met Feb. 16 with U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Archbishop Foley told CNS he explained to Foxman, "I saw no anti-Semitism in the film."
"Mr. Foxman said he saw it with different eyes," the archbishop said.
Watching the film, Archbishop Foley said, "I found myself meditating deeply on the sinfulness of each one of us."
"I would hope people would accept the film as a meditation on our own culpability for Christ's suffering," the archbishop said.
He also said he hoped people would be aware of the strong teaching of the Catholic Church that anti-Semitism is a sin and that not all the Jews of Christ's time, nor all Jews of all time were responsible for his death.
Foxman was scheduled to meet Feb. 18 with Salesian Father Norbert Hofmann, secretary of the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
He said that even if no Vatican statement were forthcoming, "People are listening. There is an open door at the Vatican."
And, he said, the debate in the United States about possible anti-Semitism in the film is causing people to read and talk about the issue.
"The Passion of the Christ" is set to open in U.S. theaters Feb. 25.
In Washington, the U.S. bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs planned to release a compilation of Catholic teaching on the Jews and Judaism Feb. 23.
Titled "The Bible, the Jews, and the Death of Jesus: A Collection of Catholic Documents," the book includes a Second Vatican Council document on relations with non-Christian religions as well as a 1988 "Criteria for the Evaluation of Dramatizations of the Passion."
In Canada, the Canadian Jewish Congress asked churches not to allow "The Passion of the Christ" to be a source of tension.
"We are relying on (churches) to play a constructive, harmony-fostering role in the viewing of the film," said a Feb. 16 statement.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
|
|
|
|
