[Cicero]

I looked at his whole statement, and there are no further details on what he means by this.

In the context of this movie, the statement strikes me as foolish and stupid, but not necessarily heretical. It leaves room to weasel out of what he seems to say.

For instance, in the Bible it may say "The sun rose." In fact every day we also say "The sun rose." That is not a scientific description, however. The sun doesn't rise; rather the earth turns and the sun appears to rise. Everybody understands this, and it's not a problem.

Similarly, there are other parts of the Bible that are clearly metaphors or stories, such as the parables.

But the basic things that happen in the Gospels are history. That is the Catholic belief. Jesus said what he said; the Jews said what they said; the disciples did and said what they did and said, and so forth.

Unfortunately, if the bishop's comment is to have any applicability to Mel's film, then he would seem to be saying that things that the Bible said happened actually didn't happen. That is plain heretical. But he can probably weasel out of it by explaining that that isn't what he really meant. He should, at the very least, be forced to weasel out of it, since that would clarify the Church's position on this very basic matter.

[nickcarraway]

I agree with you. The sentence is worded in such a way as to be vague, and allow one to say it was misunderstood. But since he is a bishop, he has the obligation to be clear.