Parents question student viewing of "Passion"

Boston Globe/AP ^ | 3/19/2004

[presidio9]

MERIDEN, Conn. -- Parents at the St. Stanislaus School question a pastor's decision to take middle school students out of school to see "The Passion of the Christ."

The Rev. Edmund Nadolny says the trip was a religious experience he didn't want the children to miss. Nadolny paid for the trip and movie tickets for 100 6th, 7th and 8th graders out of his own pocket.

[Moose4]

If he got permission from the parents, I don't have that much of a problem with it (after all, it's a Christian school, isn't it?). If he didn't get parental permission for each child first, then it was wrong.

}:-)4

[per loin]

Before long everyone except the paid movie critics will have seen it. Domestic gross through yesterday was $276,092,867

[holidayidol]

Why do they even draft this story, if they're going to include the teeny-weeny fact about permission slips.

The fact that there were permission slips, and that the only students who went had signed permissions slips, makes this story completely irrelevant.

[Argus]

This, however, is A-OK:

A North Carolina couple is outraged by a book their first-grade daughter brought home from the school library in which a prince finds his true love – in the form of another prince. The leading character in "King & King," Prince Bertie, waves off a bevy of eligible princes before falling for Prince Lee, Associated Press reported. The book ends with the two "marrying" and sharing a kiss.

[VRWC_minion]

Shocking. How can you folks sit here quietly and stand by while a Priest would use valuable school time attempting to teach the children about a minor historical event.

He could have taken them all to the petty zoo and done something educational.

[Liz]

People yakking about The Passion's so-called "violence" might be the same ones who let their kids see Kill Bill and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre without a murmur.

In case they haven't figured it out yet, the difference is The Passion's is redemptive violence.

[Jeff Gordon]

the only students who went had signed permissions slips, makes this story completely irrelevant.

Maybe the story is in the subtext. A Priest alone with 150 children...

[Stone Mountain]

"The only objections we are getting are from people who haven't seen it," he said. "There are lots of immature parents out there.

That's nice. Ridicule the beliefs of parents who don't want their children exposed to extreme violence on a movie screen. Shouldn't this pastor repect the beliefs of a child's parents, even if he disagrees with them?

[shadowman99]

1. This isn't a public school, it's St. Stanislaus. These kids shouldn't be seeing anything they haven't already learned.
2. Most of these kids have seen more graphic movie violence on HBO.
3. They couldn't go without permission slips. Nobody made any kids go against the parent's will.
4. It's OK to get an abortion without parental consent, but not see a movie.

[theFIRMbss]

>Ridicule the beliefs of parents who don't want their children exposed to extreme violence on a movie screen

"Gibson has also claimed that the book on which much of the film is based, written by the 19th-Century German nun and mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich, actually fell from his bookshelf one day, all but begging him to read it."

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It is much more than
just violence. It's mixing
Gospel with weirdness --

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"...There is an author at work who ought to have received a screenwriting credit for the film. Indeed, it is obvious upon close examination that Gibson has actually created a cinematic version not so much of the Gospels but of Anne Catherine Emmerich’s purported visions of the death of Jesus."

"The Passion According to Anne Catherine Emmerich

"Anne Catherine Emmerich lived between 1774 and 1824. An Augustinian nun in Westphalia, Germany who was renowned as a mystic and stigmatic, her dreams or visions of the life of Christ were collected after her death and published. ..."

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Book Description: Contains many astounding revelations that support our faith, yet are not contained in the Bible or in any other sacred literature. Includes a day-by-day account of the public life of Christ, plus a rendition of the lives of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist, St. Anne and St. Joachim, plus many ancestors of Our Lord. Describes events from the creation of the world to the Apostles' early missionary work, plus the death of the Blessed Mother. Shows that the Church founded by Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church, identical in substance, and even in many details, with the Catholic Church of our times. Says the Egyptians falsified their calendar to make their nation appear older than it was. Says that the Holy Grail of the First Mass was the same chalice used by Melchisedech in his sacrifice of bread and wine. Says St. Peter worked more miracles than any other Apostle, also that he celebrated Mass exactly as Our Lord had done. A treasure trove of information obtainable from no other source. Seems an act of God these visions were permitted and recorded.

[Mikey]

Yeah don't whatever you do allow a child to see or hear anything remotely Christain but, no problem with showing (or forcing by way of a bad grade) a child something anti-Christain.

Liberals & Hypocrisy, what's the difference?

[AMDG&BVMH]

"6th, 7th and 8th graders "

The priest who is on the board of my daughter's (Catholic) school said mature 5th graders could see it; our school left it to the parents (as this one did, with permission slips). I concur, having taken our 12 year old to it. As was mentioned, the Passion is/should be well-known to Catholic school students . . .

[wisconsinconservative]

Maybe the story is in the subtext. A Priest alone with 150 children...

Exactly where does it say that he was alone with 150 children?

[Mich0127]

Okay..I graduated high school about 5 years ago, so I still remember protocol. If they wanted to take us to see a rated G movie in our senior year, we had permission slips. Give me a break. The Passion of the Christ was probably the best movie I have seen in the theatres in the past few years!
These kids should see it--they might learn something!

[rcocean]

How can one be "alone" with 150 children?

[Aquinasfan]

But some parents are questioning why the students had to be pulled out of school to see the movie

What class is more important than experiencing Christ's Passion? These parents are clueless. The primary purpose of true Catholic education is to help children learn how to know, love and serve God, not to get junior into college.

[Aquinasfan]

The fact that there were permission slips, and that the only students who went had signed permissions slips, makes this story completely irrelevant.

Remember, this is the Christian-hating Globe. They didn't think the "fisting sex-ed" controversy was worth covering.

[Green Knight]

Ridicule the beliefs of parents who don't want their children exposed to extreme violence on a movie screen.

If they didn't want their kids exposed to the violence in the movie then all they had to do was NOT SIGN THE PERMISSION SLIP! He's right to ridicule them, for throwing a whine party AFTER they went ahead and signed the permission slip so their kid could go see it.

[Aquinasfan]

Contains many astounding revelations that support our faith, yet are not contained in the Bible or in any other sacred literature.

Which is why Catholics aren't obligated to believe any of it, or any other private revelation, for that matter.

Regardless, none of it contradicts Scripture, and some scenes, like Mary wiping up Jesus' blood, add quite a bit to the movie. If the movie used only the Gospels as a source for dialogue, it would have been ten minutes long.