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Recently EWTN published a letter which shared the thoughts of the Most Reverend John F. Donoghue, Archbishop of Atlanta concerning Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ: |
"Last summer Mel Gibson brought his film to Atlanta, and shared it with a small number of local religious leaders. At that time, I was able to talk at length with Mr. Gibson privately, and I am completely convinced that his motive in making this film was entirely religious, and that it manifests what I consider to be his sincere faith and devotion. I am also impressed by the willingness with which he faced the monumental challenges of accurately depicting the Gospel events surrounding the Passion of our Lord, as well as his courage in answering the opposition which such a depiction has and will continue to provoke.
Mel Gibson's understanding has been enlightened by the understanding of the Church. Specifically, in his depiction of the capture, the trial and the condemnation of Jesus Christ, no one bears the blame exclusively neither the Jews, nor the Romans, nor the Herodians. Our Lord's sufferings and death are the result of one thing, and one thing only - the presence of evil in the world as a result of sin, the weakness of men and women when overcome by the temptations of Satan. All people bear the blame for our Lord's suffering and death - all people should feel sorrow or contrition that Christ's innocence is the only worthy sacrifice to atone for our sinfulness. These are hard lessons for us to bear at the best of times, for we are so proud; and these are almost impossible lessons for our modern culture, which seems devoted to the complete denial of sin and evil. Mel Gibson's desire is to show that sin and evil do exist, that Satan is real,and that only by humbly participating in the merits gained by our Lord, only by seeing, by feeling and by sharing in His suffering and death do we gain the grace, the gift, of being made worthy again to share the company of God. This is a gift that Jesus Christ made to all men and women - His gift does not consider race or creed - His gift embraces all who embrace Him. The blame for His death is upon the heads of all the children of Adam and Eve. And if there is one who can be said to condemn Him, then it is the one whom Jesus called "a murderer from the beginning" - Satan."
As Archbishop Donoghue stated:
The movie "will not leave you the same person you were before - you will never again not be able to picture the scope of our Lord's suffering, and the terrible price He paid in order to save us. And consequently, you will never again be able to think of yourself as being innocent, or only relatively involved in the events of His Passion."
"It's time to for us Americans to shed our holy card fantasties and see the Passion and Death of Christ for what it really was, really is, and was really meant to be. With our cultural preoccupation with motion pictures, this movie will prove to be invaluable. Gibson is a brave heart for producing it. He has done his Faith proud."--Rick Sikorski, Good Catholic Information
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