Frequently Asked Questions About Mel Gibson's 'Passion'

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But the passion play also has a long history of inciting anti-Semitic hatred, which is why Mel Gibson's film is creating dread among some Jews. In fact, the play's fueling of anti-Semitism culminated in Adolf Hitler's 1934 comment expressing admiration for the play: "It is vital that the Passion play be continued at Oberammergau; for never has the menace of Jewry been so convincingly portrayed as in this presentation of what happened in the time of the Romans. There one sees Pontius Pilate, a Roman racially and intellectually so superior, that he stands out like a firm, clean rock in the middle of the whole muck and mire of Jewry."

Are the Stations of the Cross in the Bible?
Yes and no. The Stations of the Cross (also called the Way of the Cross, Via Crucis, and Via Dolorosa) are a devotional practice linked to a series of pictures representing scenes from Jesus' last hours. The object of the Stations is to help the faithful to make a "pilgrimage" to the chief scenes of Jesus' suffering and death.

The traditional Stations are: 1. Jesus is condemned to death; 2. The cross is laid upon him; 3. His first fall; 4. He meets Mary, his mother; 5. Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross; 6. His face is wiped by Veronica; 7. His second fall; 8. He meets the women of Jerusalem; 9. His third fall; 10. He is stripped of His garments; 11. He is crucified; 12. Jesus dies on the cross; 13. His body is taken down from the cross; and 14. He is laid in the tomb.

: Most of the scenes are contained in the Gospels, but some are not: meeting his mother, Veronica wiping his face, and the falls with the cross.

Is Mel Gibson really Catholic?
Mel Gibson considers himself Catholic, but his relationship with the official Catholic Church is strained. Gibson has built his own traditionalist Catholic chapel near his home; a pre-Vatican II Latin Mass is said there. In a February 2004 interview with Diane Sawyer, Gibson said "I'm just Roman Catholic, the way they were up until the mid '60s."

In an online chat with Beliefnet, LA Cardinal Roger Mahony said: "I know nothing about the Church in Malibu. It is certainly not in communion with the Universal Catholic Church nor the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. I have never met Mr. Gibson, and he does not participate in any parish of this Archdiocese. He, apparently, has chosen to live apart from the communion of the Catholic Church. I pray for him."

Churches like Gibson's, which are not affiliated with any diocese, are usually considered schismatic. The Church's Code of Canon Law defines schism--separation from the Church--as "the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."

Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, is an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church and an adherent of the "sedevacantist" movement, so called from the Latin phrase meaning "empty seat"--their claim being that every pope since 1960 has been spurious. While Gibson is said to disagree with his father, the actor has been quoted often as waxing nostalgic for the Mass said in Latin and the doctrines as they were for almost 2,000 years.

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