All three major New York papers today had stories on The Passion of The Christ:

(anti-Catholic rag) Newsday

NY Post

Daily News

All three include pictures or blurbs about Kellenberg High School's pilgrimage to the movie. Students (who chose to do so) walked 3 miles from the school to the movie.

"They came in waves, hundreds at a time walking three miles in the winter chill, their foreheads daubed with ash as they crowded normally empty sidewalks on their way to see a movie.

The film was Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," which opened at theaters across the country yesterday, and the walkers were students at Kellenberg Memorial High School.

Altogether, about 1,500 students from the Catholic school in Uniondale made the trip in two batches, 700 for a morning showing at the Loews Roosevelt Raceway Theater and 800 for an afternoon screening there.

"Let this be a pilgrimage of faith with Jesus, and not just another movie," said Brother Ryan Sheehan, during a prayer earlier at the school's auditorium."