The Roman Catholic prelate, John Cardinal Heenan, will take no official action on a report by members of his advisory commission that the Oberammergau Passion Play to be presented by Catholics in Manchester next week is anti-Semitic and a misrepresentation of the Gospel story.
Sister Louise-Gabriel and Dr. Patricia Keefe, two members of the national commission appointed by the Cardinal in 1965 to implement the Vatican Declaration on the Jews, charged that the play was directly opposed to the spirit of the Vatican Declaration after they listened to tape recordings of it.
Sister Louise-Gabriel said today that the play presented Jews as “bad, strongly emphasized the role of Judas” and was likely to have a prejudicial effect on the minds of children who watched it. Spectators, she said, might gather the wrong impression that it represented Catholic thinking toward Jews. A spokesman for Cardinal Heenan said that the reason for his decision to take no official action in the matter was that the play was being staged outside the Archdiocese of Westminster.
Christopher Hollis, chairman of Cardinal Heenan’s advisory commission on the Vatican Declaration, said that he believed the Cardinal held the view that no Passion play could be presented without appearing to convey some anti-Semitic sentiments. The play is scheduled to be staged in London in April.
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