Madam, - As evangelical Christians, both Catholic and Pentecostal, we deeply appreciate the debt our Christian Churches owe to the Jewish people and we are deeply concerned about the growing anti-Semitism in Europe over the past three years. We also understand the concern of the Jewish community that the film The Passion of the Christ will foster anti-Semitism.
A number of Christian leaders, whom we respect, have seen this film and have been deeply moved and touched by it. Mel Gibson has clearly stated that anti-Semitism is a grievous sin and that today's Jewish people bear absolutely no blood guilt whatever, no inherited blame, for the decision which the Pharisees, Sadducees and other Jewish leaders made in first-century Israel.
We salute the integrity and courage of Mel Gibson in making this film. But we are sorry he didn't take up the proposal made to him by some Christian leaders in the United States that a one-sentence message be posted on the screen after the concluding scene, as follows: "During the Roman occupation 250,000 Jews were crucified by the Romans, but only One rose from the dead".
Including this simple statement, that Jesus of Nazareth was one Jew among the many thousands who cruelly suffered under Roman occupation, would have made this work of art repugnant to anti-Semites.
Anti-Semitic assaults are increasing in Europe. In Britain, the number of malicious acts aimed at the Jewish community or individual Jews rose by 7 per cent in 2003 to 375. So there is a real basis for the fears that Mel Gibson's film is prompting in Jewish communities everywhere. But rather than asking the Catholic hierarchy to "denounce the film as anti-Semitic", as the Chief Rabbi of Ireland has asked (The Irish Times, February 26th), we would strongly urge Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal church leaders to use the opportunity this film will provide to re-state their total opposition to anti-Semitism and to state that the Jewish people today are in no way responsible for the death of Jesus 2,000 years ago.
We are all ultimately responsible for His death because of our sin, which caused Him to voluntarily lay down His life for us. - Yours, etc.,
PADDY and ANNE MONAGHAN, Hillcourt Road, Glenageary, Co Dublin.