The recent release of Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” has evoked considerable discussion regarding its potentially anti-Semitic undertow.
Artistic renditions of the Passion by Catholics bear a special responsibility in this matter, and are subject to criteria developed by the Holy See and our own National Conference of Bishops.
I intend to offer some personal reflections on that question at a later date after I have seen the film as released and studied its message. For the moment, however, especially given the understandable sense of unease and vulnerability experienced by our Jewish colleagues at this time in history, I wish to restate clearly our Catholic teaching regarding Judaism, and to offer some background on the major steps in our recent journey toward this renewed conviction.
Throughout the past century, Catholic biblical scholars have reclaimed the strong Jewish roots to the Christian Scriptures. The total Jewishness of Jesus and his first disciples has become a treasure.
Moreover it has become clearer that Gospels, such as that of Matthew, arose from an early community comprised of both Torah-practicing Jewish Christians and Gentile converts. John’s references to “the Jews” too easily mask the fact that they all were!
Over the same period liturgical scholars have retrieved the extensive roots of our Eucharistic ritual in the Barakah (Blessing) prayers of ancient Israel.
Church historians have forced us to confront the realities we find so abhorrent and shameful today, namely the violence against German and Hungarian Jewish communities during the First Crusade in the 11th century and the systematic ghettoization and harsh taxation of Jewish communities throughout Europe. Inspired by harsh preaching, violent Good Friday riots and pogroms brought destruction to countless innocent Jewish families.
Many changes
Then came the horror of the Nazi Holocaust. Initial news of its discovery provoked a numbed silence from Christians everywhere. Christians had also suffered that brutality, but its primary and overwhelming target was the Jewish community as such. Slowly the church came to understand its own historical contribution to that terrible human tragedy.
In the aftermath of that painful history, and against the background of so much rediscovery of the Jewish roots of almost everything held dear by Christians, the Second Vatican Council was convened to address the joys and sorrows of the modern world.
Blessed Pope John XXIII welcomed Jewish visitors, calling himself “Joseph, your brother.” The prayers of Good Friday were modified to be more respectful of the reality of Jewish faith.
In the 1965 Declaration “Nostra Aetate,” the church solemnly repudiated any suggestion that what happened to Jesus could be “blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today” (par. 4).
The 1961 doctoral study of our own Racine Dominican, Sr. Rose Thering, began to be applied as catechetical texts were reviewed and corrected throughout the nation. So much anti-Semitism and even “teaching of contempt” had been subtly present in the manner of presenting the life and teachings of Jesus.
In a 1980 visit to Mainz, Germany, Pope John Paul II referred to St. Paul’s teaching in Romans 11:29 and insisted that the Jewish people remained bound to God in an “irrevocable covenant.” The theological and catechetical consequences of that clear conviction have been enormous for ordinary Catholics and theologians alike.
Simple “supercessionism” — namely the false teaching that Christianity took the place of Judaism in God’s plan — was rejected as erroneous, and the Jewish community/synagogue itself has been recognized as an ongoing source of salvation for the children of Abraham.
In 1985, the Holy See published “Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis of the Roman Catholic Church.” Accurate and respectful history was to become the only acceptable measure for any treatment of Judaism.
In John Paul II’s historic 1986 visit to the Great Roman Synagogue, he deplored “displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews,” emphatically repeating the phrase “from any source!”
In 1988 the U.S. Catholic bishops issued both “God’s Mercy Endures Forever: Guidelines on the Presentation of Jews and Judaism in Catholic Preaching,” and “Criteria for Evaluation of Dramatization of the Passion.” Needless to say, it is in light of precisely these teachings that the Gibson film must be reviewed for its explicit and implicit content. In doing so, Catholics should be mindful of the long and dark shadows of history.
On the occasion of the Great Jubilee in 2000, the Holy Father, after having spoken so often about the need for the purification of our memories, made his profoundly moving visit to the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. He also offered a solemn apology in St. Peter’s Basilica for the sins of the church committed against the people of Israel.
Here in Milwaukee at Congregation Shalom, Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland’s apology to our own Jewish neighbors for the persecution of centuries brought tears to the eyes of so many congregants that day. I know; I was there.
Each of these many events marked a significant new moment in the history of our renewed sense of partnership with our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Against that background we cannot remain silent if any presentation of the Lord’s Passion undercuts true Catholic teaching or implies a possible return to the errors of the past. Respect for ourselves and for our Jewish neighbors demands nothing less.
Meanwhile, a fine summary of Catholic teaching has just been published by the bishops’ conference entitled “The Bible, the Jews and the Death of Jesus.”
With deep conviction I am proud to join Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and the Catholics of our archdiocese in our commitment that there will be no turning back from our renewed sense of partnership.
We are profoundly grateful for the blessings that this bond has brought to us and to our entire community. We are determined that nothing should harm that bond or cause needless anxiety to anyone.
Bishop Richard J. Sklba is auxiliary bishop of the Milwaukee Archdiocese. This article originally appeared in the Catholic Herald.
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