Report: Pope Did Not Endorse Gibson Film
VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II never endorsed Mel Gibson (news)'s controversial Biblical epic "The Passion of the Christ," the pontiff's longtime secretary told a Catholic news service.
Published reports over the past month said John Paul gave his approval of the film after a screening in his apartment in early December by saying, "It is as it was."
The film's producers said the quote was given to them by the papal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz.
In its report Monday, the Catholic News Service quoted Dziwisz as saying, "That is not true."
The news service, which is affiliated with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Dziwisz told the agency that the pope "does not make judgments on art of this kind;
he leaves that to others, to experts."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...an_gibson_film
Experts like Ebert & Roeper?
aV
