MEL GIBSON AND THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

When Chris from Maine Catholic and Beyond first asked for nominations for Catholic of the Year I suggested Mel Gibson, almost half in jest. When others listed their nominees I felt they might be better choices. When the final list of nominees was posted I checked it and read the question 3 times just to make sure and then I voted for Mel. I was stunned to see Mel in the lead, with 55% of the votes at the time. The more I thought about it the more I was convinced – Mel Gibson, of Lethal Weapon, Mad Max, Braveheart and Signs fame, had the greatest impact on the Faith during 2003. No other person stimulated such discussion about Catholicism or the Faith. Barbara Nicolosi hit the nail on the head in her interview on Godspy:

“When I was watching The Passion I thought, in this particular moment, where we're coming out of the priest sex scandal and all the rest, the Church in a slumber -we've negotiated terms with the world in every quadrant, we've just settled in. We're not leaven in the dough, we are the dough. We're mostly indistinguishable from "the world" in so many places, in every profession. All of a sudden this movie comes out.”

Mel is doing exactly what Vatican II called Catholics to do: take our faith into the modern world and act as leaven. I believe the film is doing that even though it was not released in 2003. The irony of a man who returned to the faith through the pre-conciliar Mass is not at all lost on me. It says more than anything about the state of the Church. What other Catholic was so public with their faith?? What other Catholic took the faith into their public work with such success? (Barbara Hall with her Joan of Arcadia, Maggie Gallagher, Rod Dreher, Fr. Fessio, Deal Hudson, Tom Monaghan, and Peggy Noonan are the only others that come to mind). If the question was worded differently I would have made another choice, but I believe the person with the most impact for the year was Gibson. Mel has sparked more debate on things Catholic than anything else this year and therefore I think it is right that he won this poll. The other person who should have been nominated, and I only thought of this now, was Tom Monaghan. By announcing the creation of Ave Maria University he has given hope to many that a truly Catholic University will be built. This has sparked some grumbling by the Catholic University establishment and, as Martha would say, that is a good thing.

One more comment on the Passion movie -- I think what some Catholic critics are really worried about in this movie is the public, outright, unabashed, total and traditional Catholicism in it. These types seem to me to be self-hating Catholics who do not want any type of traditional Catholicism in the public view except if it has been filtered through a politically correct lense.