WIESENTHAL CENTER ON GIBSON FILM: GOING BACK
TO PRE-VATICAN II MAY GIVE RISE TO ANTISEMITISM
In reaction to the article in The New York Times Sunday
Magazine, Is the Pope Catholic…Enough? Rabbi Marvin Hier,
Founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said, “Obviously, no
one has seen The Passion and I certainly have no problem with
Mel Gibson’s right to believe as he sees fit or make any movie he
wants to.”
“What does concern me, however,” he continued, “is when I read
that the film’s purpose is to undo the changes made by Vatican II.
That historic Vatican conclave was convened not only to alter the
language in which the Mass was celebrated, but to deal with many
critical issues, especially the rejection of the notion that the
Jews were collectively responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. The
simple truth is crucifixtion was a Roman punishment, not a Jewish
one, and Rome was in control of Jerusalem, not the Jews.” As Nostra
Aetate says, “…what happened in His passion cannot be blamed upon
all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor against the Jews
of today.”
“If the new film seeks to undo that,” said Hier, “it would not be
uncovering truth. Rather, it would unleash more of the scurrilous
charges of deicide directed against the Jewish people, which took
the Catholic Church twenty centuries to finally repudiate. The
notion that the Jews killed Christ has fanned the flames of
antisemitism for the last 2,000 years and paved the way for the
wanton slaughter of Jews.”
With respect to the remarks of Hutton Gibson quoted in the
article, who denies the Holocaust and the responsibility of Al Qaeda
for the events of September 11, Rabbi Hier said, “To bigots and
antisemites, no amount of evidence or scientific proof is ever
enough. In their world only hate matters.”
The Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish
human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the
United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the
United Nations, UNESCO, and the Council of Europe.
For more information, contact the Wiesenthal Center's Public
Relations Department at (310) 553-9036.
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