From a Scourged Jesus to a Cut Up Gospel: "The Passion" According to Marcion
The Vatican is not just worried about relations with Jews. It is even more so with regard to losing faith in the historical realism of the four Gospels. It fears a revival of an ancient heresy - Marcionism - which eliminated politically incorrect pages fr
by Sandro Magister
ROMA - A huge controversy with the Jewish community has been provoked by "The Passion of the Christ". Mel Gibson´s film is now showing in movie theater across half of the world, in North and South America and in the pope´s homeland of Poland. Starting in Holy Week, April 7, his epic film will hit Roman and Italian cinemas as well.
However, Gibson´s film has provoked another problem now brewing inside the Catholic Church. This particular issue has irked the Catholic community so much so that the pope´s very own Pontifical House preacher, Franciscan Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, dedicated his entire March 12 Lenten sermon to discussing the problem. And he did so while speaking before John Paul II himself and other members of the Roman Curia at the Vatican´s "Redemptoris Mater" chapel.
Both issues deserve even more serious attention not in terms of how they affect the reception of Mel Gibson´s film. The movie is debatable as is any artistic work and cinemagraphic production. The real polemic is about the very telling of Christ´s passion, the ancient and fundamental core of the four Gospels.
* * *The Jewish issue is the one which has triggered the nosiest reactions from critics across the globe. Rome´s head rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, even appealed to the Church. He asked Vatican authorities to make an official statement against the film´s supposed anti-Semitic content, finding his support in the Vatican II "Nostra Aetate" proclamation, which he said "treated differently the facts in the Gospels accounts, while seeking to write accurate historical accounts of the responsibility surrounding Jesus´ death."
However in response to Di Segni´s request Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls said in a March 11 interview published in the Italian daily, "Il Messaggero": "If the Church has not expressed any reaction, then it means it has found no reason to do so."
And furthermore Navarro-Valls said that "the film is the cinemagraphic reproduction of the Gospels. If the film were anti-Semitic, so too would be the Gospels. [...] This would be equal to saying the Gospels are not historical accounts."
John Paul II´s intimate circle of top Vatican officials have made constant claims that there is a close correspondence between the passion recorded in the Gospels and the "The Passion" as told by Mel Gibson. For example, last December both the pope´s personal secretary, archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, and Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said John Paul II exclaimed "It is as it was!" after a private screening of the film. Then both denied the pontiff said such words in obedience to a warning from the Vatican secretary of state to keep the pope out of the film´s controversy. The other reason was to avoid jeopardizing in any way the pope´s second visit to Rome´s Jewish synagogue, an event scheduled to take place this year.
At any rate, more than a mere stalemate in Jewish-Catholic relations, the Vatican fears a frontal attack on the historical accuracy of the Gospels. This criticism has been explicitly formulated by Leon Wieseltier, a Jewish philosopher and chief editor of the cultural section of "The New Republic" magazine. "It is said that this film reports exactly what is told in the Gospels. But the Gospel accounts are not sure and reliable historical documents," he said.
Even some Catholic intellectuals have joined in on the assault. To combat such growing negative opinions, the Vatican has lined up two of its best warriors on the theo-historical battle field: Fr. Joseph Augustine Di Noia, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith undersecretary, and Pontifical House Preacher, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa.
The first is a Dominican theologian. Over the past few months Fr. Joseph Augustine Di Noia has produced some of the most sophisticated doctrinal commentary on polemical issues Gibson´s film had provoked. And this has been the case, evidently with the go-ahead from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, his direct superior.
The second is a Capuchin friar and former professor of early Christian history at Milan´s Catholic University. Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa has passionately defended the historical accuracy of the Gospel accounts while serving as the official Pontifical House preacher - apparently with the pope´s own approval.
* * *According to what Fr. Cantalamessa preached on March 12, certain members of the Christian camp have lined up to dilute the "letter" of the Gospel accounts of Christ´s passion.
Cantalamessa explained that "letter" means "what happened" or "really occurred" as narrated and described by eye witnesses. He sees certain controversies raised by Mel Gibson´s film as signs of a breakdown in the faith´s sense of realism. Catholic faithful still say in the Creed that Jesus Christ "suffered under Pontius Pilate" and during Holy Week there is still the Gospel reading of the Passion. But faith in the historical accuracy of the Gospel accounts has been seriously weakened, as the "spirit" is much more accepted than the letter of the Gospel accounts.
Furthermore, Vatican Council II is often called upon to support the duality between the spirit and letter of the Bible. In the March 6 issue of the Roman daily "Il Riformista" Catholic intellectual and renowned constitutionalist, Stefano Ceccanti, wrote an article explaining the appeal being made to Vatican II.
Ceccanti writes that the Vatican II statement, "Nostra Aetate" (concerning relations with Jews and members of other faiths) urged Christians "when teaching and preaching the Word of God not to instruct anything not in conformity with the truths of the Gospel and Spirit of Christ."
And Ceccanti adds: "But where are such truths and Spirit to be found? In the strict literal reading of the words of Sacred Scripture? Coming to the rescue is another document, ´Dei Verbum´, on divine revelation." As interpreted and applied by Ceccanti we understand:
"There are problems upon drawing from [Gospel] texts - as if they were indisputable history books or a fundamentalist reading of the Bible. It would be as if the evangelists were mere passive receptacles of the Holy Spirit, without applying any of their own intellectual rigor when writing the texts. In terms of our specific case, it is clear that the four Gospel writers (in various ways and even more so when considering the letters of St. Paul) were a reflection of the communities to which they belonged. They necessarily affirmed their identity by distinguishing themselves from the Jews. Yet the early [Christian] faith, that of the Son of God, could not help but make a clean break with the faith imposed by the Father, the law of Moses. Having done so had a polemical effect on their recounting of Christ´s passion. This doesn´t mean that such writings must be purged of these aspects in the name of ´political correctness´. Yet it means that, when reading them, we must realize the Gospels were written according to real historical influence and that we must not take it to be a direct expression of divine will."
Ceccanti´s conclusion: "We are freed from a letter of violence and counter-opposition (seen in the Scripture influenced by the human condition of the writers) only by a spirit of awareness of the common links found [between Christians and Jews]. If this is not done after ´Nostra Aetate´, we involuntarily end up fostering a revival of anti-Semitism."
* * *In the end, neither Cantalamessa nor Di Noia have said it outright. Yet, inside the Vatican it is believed that Marcion´s heresy looms close behind the polemical duality of interpreting the letter and spirit of Sacred Scripture.
Marcion was a 2nd century Greek philosopher and theologian who attempted to eliminate the entire Old Testament and various books and passages from the New Testament. The books and verses he sought to ban from the Bible were those which, in his judgment, were expressions of a violent and evil God as opposed to the good and kind divinity found in Jesus.
This was the way Marcion saw things - just like some of today´s Catholics seek to purge the Bible of all verses they personally believe to be inaccurate or offensive. The most recent instance of neo-Marcionism in Italy is found in the opinions of Enrico Peyretti, leader of Catholic pacifism and founder-chief editor of the Turin monthly, "il Foglio".
Since Eric Auerbach literary criticism has ascertained that it was the four Gospels themselves which first introduced realism into Western literature. For those who cannot support such a realism they find assistance in apocryphal texts. And some such revised religious texts - as René Girard said in an interview in the March 10 issue of "la Repubblica" - "have completely eliminated the Passion" from official Gospel accounts.
Even the Koran, in the 7th Century, dismissed Jesus of his passion. Today, however, there are those who seek not to suppress the Gospel account of the passion, but soften it up a bit. And they do so with conviction that dialogue with Jews and the "spirit "of Vatican Council II has authorized them to do so.
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Useful Links The words of the Vatican II "Nostra Aetate" declaration, paragraph 4, regarding Christ´s passion and the Jews:
"True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. [...] Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and [...] in order that all may reach salvation."
For the full text of the statement, go here:
> "Nostra Aetate"Here you can find an authoritative guide to reading the Gospel accounts of Christ´s passion, as is found in the 2001 document produced by the Pontifical Biblical Commission on Jews in Sacred Scripture. The preface is written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger:
> "The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible"Here you can read the full version of the Lenten homily delivered before the pope on March 12, 2004, by the Pontifical House preacher, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, on the website of "Zenit" news agency:
> "The Letter Recounts What Occurred. The Easter of History"On this site you can follow the "It is as it was" drama. The simple words came from a comment Pope John Paul II made after watching Gibson´s film. The site also has other useful links:
> Vatican Intrigues: "The Passion," the Pope, and the Phantom Review (6.2.2004)
Go here to read about a recent case of neo-Marcionism (i.e. eliminating verses from the Gospels accounts believed to be inaccurate or offensive):
> A Famous Pacifist Speaks: "I Don´t Believe In This Cruel Bible Anymore" (28.1.2003)
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Here you can find a "pastoral" opinion on Mel Gibson's film, as formulated by the Catholic Cinema Association, on the Italian Bishops' Conference web site:
> "Accettabile, problematico, dibattiti"__________
English translation by Michael A. Severance.
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> www.chiesa.espressonline.it/english, to access the latest articles and links to other resources.
Sandro Magister´s e-mail address is
s.magister@espressoedit.it
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25.3.2004
