Sister Rose's Passion

I saw this film at the Tribeca Film Festival with the Q & A with Sister Rose afterwards. It was an intensely emotional experience. As a Jew the film's subject matter is particularly relevant to me, but the film's themes are universal. The film's subject, Sister Rose and her struggle to change the Catholic Church's official doctrine concerning the Jews, offers glimpses into the spirit of a true activist and the process of change for meta-institutions. While the film's conflict, the struggle to change official church doctrine, is poignant given the popularity of Gibson's 'Passion', it is Sister Rose herself who steals the show. This elderly Nun, who is not in the best of health, has more spitfire that a Redbull guzzling adolescent skater. While this is accurately portrayed in the film, it became even more evident during the Q & A session after the Tribeca screening. Sister Rose took the mike from the Director and would not give it back. While she did answer the audience's questions she did an equal amount of prophesizing and preaching on the topics of equality, justice, and the fight against hate. I left that screening with a renewed sense of optimism and the furnace of my own 'passion' stoked!

The best documentary I have seen so far this year.

Interesting if uninvolved in it's brevity and lack of substance, this short film documentary perhaps should have expanded it's format for DVD release. Extra scenes seem just as relevant to learning the little details about this woman's work then what is included for the most part- I can only think of a limiting time factor as a reason to cut much of it. Therefore I must fault the filmmaker/distributor if only for releasing this as a DVD release under the running length of 80 some odd minutes. Actual running time of the short is correct on IMDb, and including the extras as part of running time at the viewer's ignorance is a kinda cheap move. On the actual subject itself, Sister Rose definitely deserves some sort of treatment for the work she has done in fighting against anti-Semites in the church, more importantly deserving to capture her bold yet sweet symbol of rebellious defiance she stood for in an especially hard environment to do so. I do feel that director Jacoby, and most indeed the aged Sister Rose herself barely scratch the surface of what she spent her whole professional life fighting against. The eventual "laws" that Rose help lay foundation for which forbid teachings of Jewish hatred in Christian religious texts seems hardly a symbolic and shallow gesture in a movement that will still have some time to go. As if the supposed Christian-Judeo alliance has not incited enough hatred around the middle east as of late, that supposed alliance has in itself intense hatred on either sides. People like Sister Rose should not be taken for granted when the billions of us supposedly worship and idolize legend's whose principles out-shadowed anything that subsequent posthumous teachings manipulated out of fear and ignorance. Bless those that continue to seek purity in the original message.

"Sister Rose's Passion" was nominated for the Best Documentary Short in 2005--losing out to "Mighty Times: The Children's March". It's a very well made film about a Catholic nun, Sister Rose, who has devoted her life to fighting antisemitism within the Church. This film follows her progression of her faith through graduate school to Vatican Two to the present day--and her passion to fight any vestiges of the hatred of Jews--not just within Catholicism but in the United States. And, despite Rose's advanced age and ill health, her work in this area continues. Although not mentioned in the film, since it came out in 2004, Rose passed away in 2006 and the world is a better place because of her. In addition to talking about the progression of her beliefs and work, the movie "The Passion of the Christ" was briefly discussed and how it might serve to promote antisemitism. Overall, a very touching film about a remarkable lady.

By the way, I am curious about one thing. In the film, it basically says that the Catholic Church has long taught that the Jews bear the responsibility for killing Jesus. While I am sure many Protestant churches also have taught that over the years, thank God I have never heard this in my church experience in the Lutheran, Baptist or other Protestant churches I have attended. This is a very good thing, though I wonder if there are many churches in this country that still do teach this sick doctrine.

Clearly, Sister Rose is a fine example of a woman dedicated to ministering the mercy of Jesus Christ. The pages of Holy Scripture, particularly the New Testament, and indeed much of Church History for the past 2000 years remind all Christ's followers of this ideal.

The fact is that the Jews did not "kill" Jesus Christ, but the sins of every human being in the history of time did. This is the Christian message in its most sublime form and no amount of cinematic rhetorical spin can change this.

Sister Rose's personal appearances and words really shine in this film, with the exception of a few inaccurate comments about the veracity of St. John's Gospel (near the end of the movie),. However, the "scholars" interviewed do little more than rehash warmed over Biblical higher-criticism. This subtly denigrate the authenticity of the four canonical Gospels and consequently is incongruous with Catholic Orthodoxy.

Catholics who are faithful to the Magisterium and to Orthodoxy will either want to avoid this movie -OR- watch and listen with _very_ critical eyes and ears. One only needs to simply read the Gospel accounts to understand Christ's love for ALL of humanity.

I saw this at a Jewish-Catholic dialog meeting. It is beautifully done, and awe-inspiring. It shows what one dedicated person can do. Sister Rose grew up in World War II, and was horrified to see the hatred of Jews that was being taught in Catholic schools. She set out to change it, and she did. This film shows how she did it. In the 60s we saw what people could do to change a society that discriminated against minorities and women. But we have yet to address the fear and institutionalized discrimination against people in religions other than Christianity. For the first time in U.S. history, Christians are realizing that people of different religions are moving into their towns and neighborhoods, even in small Midwest towns, and they don't know how to relate to them. But the deliberate misunderstanding and discrimination against Jews is even more deeply entrenched in our society. Sister Rose's story shines the light on this entrenched hatred, and invites us to open our minds and hearts to people who are different. It's astonishing that so many Christians don't even recognize the fact that Jesus was a Jew. And Jesus taught love for everyone, including those we think are our enemies. As my Rabbi friend says, "Jesus came to bring us back to the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law only." Since World War II and the holocaust, we are seeing that we can no longer isolate ourselves and ignore those around us who are being persecuted. We must take responsibility for our own actions as well as for those of our cultures and religions.