Mel Gibson defends ‘Passion’

After months of controversy over whether his film “The Passion” might be anti-Catholic or anti-Semitic, Mel Gibson finally spoke out publicly this week, denying such suggestions and saying the movie about the final hours of Jesus’ life is meant to inspire, not offend.

Roman Catholic and Jewish scholars expressed concern about the movie, which Gibson directed and co-wrote, after the March publication of a New York Times magazine article about a church he is building in Agoura Hills and the religious views of his father.

The piece quoted the elder Gibson, a member of the traditionalist Catholic movement that operates outside the Roman Catholic Church, as saying that the Holocaust never happened.

“For those concerned about the content of this film, know that it conforms to the narratives of Christ’s Passion and death found in the four Gospels of the New Testament,” Gibson said in a statement released to Daily Variety.

The film is aimed for release next spring but doesn’t have a distributor yet.

-- Lee Margulies