Thursday, September 18, 2003

CARDINAL ENDORSEMENT FOR MEL

NRO has an interview with Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos on The Passion. He addresses its powerful imagery and dismisses charges of anti-Semitism. Of particular interest are his comments on its faithfulness to the Gospel accounts:
Gaspari: Is Gibson's version of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ faithful to the Gospel accounts?

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos: Mr. Gibson has had to make many artistic choices in the way he portrays the characters and the events involved in the Passion, and he has complemented the Gospel narrative with the insights and reflections made by saints and mystics through the centuries. Mel Gibson not only closely follows the narrative of the Gospels, giving the viewer a new appreciation for those Biblical passages, but his artistic choices also make the film faithful to the meaning of the Gospels, as understood by the Church.

We'll have to wait and see what these extrabiblical "insights" consist of. I understand a certain artistic license in the making of movies in order to fill out a narrative. The goal with such narrative fill is that it stays true to the Gospel narrative, and in no way contradicts it. Let's hope that's the case with a movie of such promise.

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