As we have already seen, April 18th is Passover eve--the day on which the Talmud claims Jesus was stoned and hung by the Pharisees and the day on which St. John recorded that Jesus was crucified.
In an unfathomable act of treachery, Benedict will enter a synagogue in Manhattan on the same dark day that this mocking film will open. There is no disharmony between these two events which both represent Judaic triumphalism and the subjection of Christianity.
see:
Benedict to Visit NY Synagogue on Passover Eve, the Day on which the Talmud Claims Jesus was Executed by the Pharisees
The Cross and Constantine’s Sword
April 9, 2008
By Cahir O’Doherty
JAMES Carroll, 65, noted author, National Book Award winner and columnist for the Boston Globe, has recently completed a powerful new documentary film entitled Constantine’s Sword in which he examines the roots of religiously inspired violence in the world.
Working with Oscar nominated director Oren Jacob, Carroll explores the centuries long history of anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church and its corollary in America’s evangelical movement.
The new film, which is based on Carroll’s 2001 book of the same name, details centuries of ruthless violence committed in Christianity’s name. He also warns us that the concentration of military, religious and political power in U.S. could ultimately lead to a concentration of the same “us-versus-them” dogmas that the launched the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.
Carroll, a practicing Catholic and former priest first, entered the Paulist Seminary in Washington in the crucible of the early 1960s, where he found his life transformed by the civil rights struggles of that era ...
Constantine’s Sword opens Friday, April 18 at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and the Quad Cinema in Manhattan. ("The Cross and Constantine’s Sword," Irish Voice, April 9, 2008)
http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irish-voice/entertainment/Articles/The-Cross-and-Constantines120408.aspx
Note that the film is being screened at a Judaic community center this week and that the film's director states he's only documented the "sins of the Catholic Church" which John Paul II has already apologized for:
Papal Visit 2008: Film On Christian-Jewish History To Open Upon Pope's Arrival
April 10, 2008
A controversial new film on Christian-Jewish history called "Constantine's Sword" will open in New York City during Pope Benedict XVI's visit next week. NY1's Shazia Khan filed the following report.
In his new film "Constantine's Sword," based on the 2001 book of the same name, former priest turned writer James Carroll reckons with his faith, and in large part, looks at anti-Semitism in Christianity.
The Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side invited religious leaders for a special screening this week. Among the attendees was Sister Mary Boys, a professor at Union Theological Seminary and a woman active in Christian-Jewish dialogue.
"What he narrates in that film happened," she said. "We need to know about it, so that we make for a different church, and I think we are in a different church. And I want to be a part of a church that has the courage and the maturity to face its own history."
"I think it is an ambitious film," said Rabbi David Greenstein of the Academy for Jewish Religion. "I think that it hopefully can engender some very difficult discussion."
Oscar-nominated documentarian Oren Jacoby directed, co-wrote, and co-produced the film. He says he and Carroll have received both praise and criticism, with some saying the film bashes Catholics.
"Pope John Paul II, in the year 2000, apologized to the world for what he saw as the sins of the Catholic Church," said Jacoby. "All we've done in this film is lay out what those sins were that he was apologizing for and John Paul II was not a Catholic basher."
Sister Boys says the film focuses too much on what was and not enough on how the church has changed.
"I think there is too little, both in the book and in the film, about the many, many people who have been involved in the last 50 or so years in trying to make a make a different future," she said.
"Constantine's Sword" is slated to open in the city next Friday, the same day Pope Benedict XVI arrives [This is incorrect. Benedict arrives at Andrew's Air Force Base on Tuesday, April 15th]. Jacoby says the timing is a mere coincidence, but hopes the film's premiere during the pontiff's visit will stimulate interfaith discussion. ("Papal Visit 2008: Film On Christian-Jewish History To Open Upon Pope's Arrival," Shazia Khan, April 10, 2008)
http://www.irishabroad.com/news/irish-voice/entertainment/Articles/The-Cross-and-Constantines120408.aspx
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