Posted on 09/13/2002 1:15:18 AM PDT by glorygirl
MEL GIBSON, a Roman Catholic who is to play Christ in a new film, has attacked the Vatican, saying that he does not believe in the Church as an institution. The actor, who says that he is an “old fashioned Catholic” who rigorously supports the Latin Mass, is shooting Passion in Rome and in the southern Italian town of Matera. He says that he is happy that his only daughter has decided to become a nun.
Gibson, 46, had a Catholic upbringing and attended a Catholic boys’ school in Australia. He is scathing about the Church’s hierarchy, saying that the Vatican was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
“I believe in God,” he told the newspaper Il Giornale.
“My love for religion was transmitted to me by my father. But I do not believe in the Church as an institution”. Gibson has a private chapel at his home in Malibu, California, at which the service is conducted every Sunday in Latin.
The abolition of the Latin Mass was one of the key reforms adopted in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, which sought to bring the liturgy closer to the people by ordering clergy to say Mass in the vernacular.
Vatican II allowed for local bishops to apply for “exceptions”, however, and Mass continues to be said in Latin in about 20 churches in Italy. These include the church of Gesù and Maria in Rome, where it has become fashionable for high-society Catholics to hold weddings and baptisms to the sound of Gregorian chant.
Church officials say that there is a growing movement for the restoration of Latin, which Vatican officials regard as dangerous and potentially schismatic.
In private the Pope continues to say Mass in Latin but permission for local dioceses is granted grudgingly.
A seminary near Florence that still trains priests in the Latin liturgy claims that its conservatism has “growing appeal”.
Gibson, whose latest film, Signs, is released today, is said by friends to have become more conservative in his religious views in middle age.
He has been married to his wife, Robyn, for more than 20 years, unusually long by Hollywood standards, and says that his faith enabled him to survive as a family man despite the drinking binges and infidelities that accompanied his early success.
He protects the privacy of his seven children (six of them sons) fiercely, but he said that his “adventuresome” daughter Hannah wanted to be a nun, and he was very happy about it. She was “healthy, smart and well travelled” and he did not have to worry about her.
Gibson, who is renowned for his swashbuckling heroics in action films such as Braveheart, Mad Max and Lethal Weapon, said that portraying Christ during his final earthly hours would be the most difficult role of his life.
He said that what attracted him to the story of Christ’s last hours before the Crucifixion was that it was “the drama of a man torn between his divine spirit and his earthly weakness”.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the road to Calvary and at Golgotha, Jesus was usually described as resigning himself to death without a tremor of fear, whereas “my Jesus will be shaken by his human suffering. Real blood will flow from the wound in his side, and the screams of his Crucifixion will be real as well.”
He said that he had chosen Matera, noted for its palaeolithic caves, or “Sassi”, because it had formed the backdrop to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Gospel According to St Matthew (1964), which he greatly admired. He would not need any special effects because Matera provided a “photocopy of the landscape you travel through as a Christian pilgrim in Israel”.
Catholic sources said that Gibson, who sought the advice of theologians and prelates in Rome for his film, had strong views on divorce, abortion and contraception that would appeal to Vatican conservatives.
It remains to be seen whether Passion will join the list of Vatican-approved films on the life of Christ, which include Nicholas Ray’s King of Kings (1961) and Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977) starring Robert Powell.
"Mel Gibson launches scathing attack on the Vatican"
What a joke!!
This'll piss off quite a few. May the apoplectic fits begin!
You've got that right. "Braveheart" didn't do much to endear him to the left, and I'm sure this one won't either.
I have a bit of a hard time believing Gibson really said he didn't believe in the church as an institution.
If that was the case, it would seem he might have a bit of a problem with his daughter's plans.
More leftist spin.
I might be mistaken, but I don't think Mel's "Old Catholic."
Let me say, the words of the Tridentine Mass are absolutely heavenly.
What they don't show you is what eventually happened to Longshanks perverted son. The nobles hated him, so they killed him in the most painful way possible - a red hot poker right up the....well, I'll leave that thought hanging in the air.
Regards, Ivan
Gibson himself said he "got into a lot of trouble for that." Many accused him of bashing, but he defended his actions, saying "Everybody got it in that film, I mean, come on, William Wallace is tortured for 15 solid minutes."
Mel Gibson is everything every man should be.
Perhaps the beginnings of a new Hollywood, a more respectful, more moral, more responsible Hollywood is cutting through the slime it has been for the past thirty years. [Sarcasm]
A chapel in his home. Married to the same woman for more than twenty years. A class act in the vein of Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart.
Interesting choice of words. ;) Yes, she was probably highly involved - certainly she and Edward II were at odds.
Regards, Ivan
Right on! Latin is a powerful language. I don't know how to explain it. And more to the point, God is in the soul, not in a building, NOT in a beaurocracy.
Way to go, Gibson! Brave Heart! The Patriot! Conspiracy Theory! Great movies! Gibson was an inspiration all through the Clinton regime. And it's not his fault if his contract requires him to parrot certain liberal lines.
Imagine a young lady raised in Malibou who becomes a nun? Fascinating!
Well, the painful nature of that method was probably seen as a side benefit (you're right, they really hated him). But the actual choice of method was made because they did not want the King's body to be visibly harmed. So they chose a method where all the damage was on the inside.
It was also considered the proper punishment for someone of his...preferences.
Regards, Ivan
Maybe he read the Bible. I used to be a Catholic, myself. What a mess that church is. All churches. BTW, tithing is a law of men, not of God. When is the last time a Catholic priest told you that? Or the leader of any church? Churches of today are little different from what they were back then.
Mark 7.[6] He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
[7] Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
[8] For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
[9] And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
[10] For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother.; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
[11] But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
[12] And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
[13] Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
[In other words, kick Mom and Dad out into the street and make beggers of them, so that you can afford to tithe to 'God'. Thus the manmade law of tithing is elevated above the Law of GOD to honor and CARE FOR your mother and father. "Hi Dad. How was begging today? Oh you hadn't eaten in three days? I'm so sorry, Pop. Good thing is, I gave God my 10 percent skim today. They put shag carpets on the church floor. Our high priest is driving around in a Corvette. Looks really kool. God will reward you for the suffering that I caused you. So chin up, Pops."]
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