Washington D.C., May 20, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Catholic-Jewish Consultation Committee met in New York April 20 to discuss their respective views of “The Passion of the Christ” as well as Catholic-Jewish relations in the aftermath of the film.
After the meeting, the U.S. bishops and the National Council of Synagogues issued a joint statement May 19. In it, they recognized that Mel Gibson’s cinematic portrayal of Christ’s Passion represents a work of artistic beauty for many Christians.
However, they also recognized that for other Christians and most Jews, the film “recalls the Passion Plays of the past”, which often incited violence against Jews.
The committee agreed that “the film's depiction of the Temple leaders and its essentially ahistorical use of the Gospels could be twisted in an anti-Semitic way.”