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Pope dod not endorse movie says aide Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/7750513.htm http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/7750513.htm Posted on Tue, Jan. 20, 2004 Pope did not endorse movie, aide says After weeks of reports that Pope John Paul II had expressed satisfaction on viewing Mel Gibson's film on Christ, the pontiff's secretary issues a denial. From Herald Wire Services Pope John Paul II's secretary denied widespread news reports that the pope offered a personal endorsement of Mel Gibson's unreleased movie The Passion of the Christ, the Catholic News Service said in an article on Monday. Cindy Wooden, a Vatican correspondent for the Catholic News Service, wrote that the secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, told her in an interview on Sunday that while the pope had indeed seen Gibson's movie, ``the Holy Father told no one his opinion of the film.'' Dziwisz's statement contradicted reports over recent weeks that the pope, after watching the movie in his private apartment in Vatican City, reacted to the movie's depiction of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus by saying, ``It is as it was.'' Some Jewish and Christian leaders, along with other critics, have expressed worries that the movie could rekindle old beliefs and assertions that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion. Gibson and his associates have said that that was neither their intent nor the movie's message. Steve McEveety, one of the movie's producers, scheduled a series of screenings here in December for Vatican officials and prominent Roman Catholics close to the Vatican. Those viewers were said to have emerged from the screenings praising the movie. McEveety also succeeded in getting a copy of the movie to the pope, who watched it with Dziwisz. Shortly thereafter, writer Peggy Noonan, in a column for the website of The Wall Street Journal, quoted McEveety as saying that the pope had declared that the movie depicted Jesus' death ``as it was.'' Dziwisz, who is closer to the pope than anyone else at the Vatican, never gives formal interviews to reporters. Dziwisz's decision to talk to Wooden suggests that he, the pope or other Vatican officials close to the pope had become concerned about the degree to which the pope's imprimatur was being placed on The Passion. One prominent Roman Catholic official close to the Vatican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he had reason to believe that the pope probably did make the remark about the film. ''But I think there's some bad feeling at the Vatican that the comment was used the way it was. It's all a little soap-operatic,'' the official said. Gibson's film company, Icon Productions, could not be reached for comment Monday. The film will be distributed by Newmarket Films, which last week said it would release it on 2,000 screens nationwide.

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