ROMAN REPORT
The Passion of the Christ may well have helped pave the way for the promulgation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum
The Silver Screen A sequel to Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, is planned, but the success of the original film should be seen in light of the grace granted by the Traditional Latin Mass, as Alberto Carosa explains
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mid the recent announcement that a sequel to Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ is due to be released sometime in 2022, some have recalled the spiritual assistance which took place behind the shooting of the Gibson’s original film. The obituary of the French born Fr Jean-Marie-Charles-Roux, which appeared in the Messa in Latino Italian portal in August this year, described how he worked as chaplain to the film crew during the shooting of The Passion of the Christ in 2004, while another report in the National Catholic Register (on September 24) said that: “Priests of the Legionaries of Christ provided spiritual support to Gibson and his crew when in Rome and on set.” To be more specific, the main aspect of this spiritual assistance was the daily celebration of the Old Latin Rite
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throughout the shooting of the film, which took place in two main locations, the Cinecittà studios in Rome and the city of Matera in Southern Italy. Thanks to my direct experience in this matter, I can throw some light on one aspect of life behind the scenes during the shooting of the film, whose spiritual relevance, dimension and implications cannot be overestimated. It all started when I received a phone call from Mel Gibson in the early autumn of 2002, a couple of days after I had received an email from his assistant asking for help. During our lengthy and pleasant conversation, he explained that he needed to find a priest willing to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass daily on the set throughout the shooting of his film, including during an extended stay in Matera.
This request was being made not only for him, but on behalf of others involved in the production of the film, first and foremost the actor who played Jesus, James Caviezel (whom, to my delight, I found to be among the devout traditionalminded faithful). My response to Gibson was that finding a priest to say the Tridentine Mass on the set in the Cinecittà studios in Rome would not be all that difficult; the problem was finding someone in Matera. We decided we needed a retired priest without regular parish commitments and one willing to move to Matera for at least a couple of months. The solution came through Msg Gilles Wach, Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a well-known traditional Latin Rite congregation of pontifical right based in Gricigliano (near Florence). He agreed to ask one of his priests, Abbé (in
WINTER 2020
