Jewish leader asks Vatican to confirm Passion stance

A Jewish leader met with Vatican officials to ask them to publicly restate church teachings on Jesus’ crucifixion, saying Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, contradicts the Roman Catholic Church’s repudiation of the charge that the Jews killed Jesus.

A top Vatican official who met with Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that no such statement was planned.

US Archbishop John Foley, who heads the Vatican’s social-communications office, again praised the film and said he found nothing anti-Semitic in it.

Mr Foxman’s visit to the Vatican came as debate over Gibson’s depiction of the violent final hours of Christ’s life intensified ahead of the film’s planned US release.

Jewish groups have said the film could fuel anti-Semitism. The Vatican has called it a recounting of the “historical fact of the passion of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel accounts”.