Vatican Official Endorses Mel Gibson Film

Vatican City, Sept. 18--(AP) Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion" has won another Vatican endorsement, with a top cardinal rejecting suggestions the movie may offend Jewish sensibilities and promote anti-Semitism.

"Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, distorts the truth by putting an entire race in a bad light. This film does nothing of the kind," Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos said in an interview published Thursday in the newspaper La Stampa.

Many conservative Christians say the unreleased film powerfully depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus' life. But Jewish leaders say the work suggests Jews were responsible for the death of Christ, and could trigger anti-Semitic attacks.

The Roman Catholic Church formally rejected Jewish culpability in Christ's death nearly 40 years ago.

Hoyos, a Colombian, is prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and heads a Vatican commission that is trying to bring ultraconservatives back to the church. Gibson is a member of an ultraconservative Catholic movement.

The film is expected to be released in the spring. Gibson has defended his work as faithful to the Gospels and said it is intended to "inspire, not offend." The cardinal told La Stampa he saw an unfinished version of the film that Gibson brought to Rome recently. "I felt moments of deep spiritual intimacy with Jesus Christ," Hoyos was quoted as saying. "I would like all Catholic priests in the world to see this film. I hope that all Christians can see it, everyone in the world."

He also rejected suggestions the film is too violent, saying one of its merits is that it shows at the same time "the horror of sin and egoism and the redemptive power of love."

U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, who heads the Vatican's social-communications office, told The Associated Press last week that he hoped to show the film in the Vatican and said he doubted whether criticisms of the film were valid.