'THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST' Pope's personal secretary says pontiff does not endorse movie

Mel Gibson's film is set to premiere Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Pope John Paul's right-hand man personally put the kibosh this week on statements that the pontiff plugged Mel Gibson's controversial new movie about the Crucifixion of Christ.
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's longtime personal secretary, now has said the pontiff did not give a thumbs up to "The Passion of the Christ," as the producers have said.
"The Holy Father told no one his opinion of this film," Dziwisz told the Catholic News Service. "He does not make judgments on art of this kind; he leaves that to others, to experts."
Dziwisz's remarks carry extra weight because the Vatican usually lets its spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, talk for the Pope. They also come amid reports that Gibson has been using the papal plug to promote the movie, which opens worldwide Ash Wednesday -- Feb. 25 -- and which Jewish groups have branded anti-Semitic.
Alan Nierob, a spokesman for the producers, said they have an e-mail from Navarro-Valls proving the movie got the papal pass.
"I saw it in writing myself," Nierob said. "He confirmed that statement, 'It is as it was."' Nierob declined to release the e-mail, which he said was sent to columnist Peggy Noonan and producer Steve McEveety.
Noonan, who wrote that Pope John Paul was an "admirer" of Gibson's movie in a Dec. 17 column for The Wall Street Journal, called Dziwisz's remarks "perplexing."
"If the pope had never said the words McEveety says he said, why wouldn't they have come down on him like a ton of bricks right away?" Noonan told the New York Daily News in an e-mail.
Shortly after Noonan's column appeared, a "senior Vatican official close to the Pope" told the Catholic News Service on Dec. 24 that the pope "made no comment" about the Gibson movie, and Dziwisz is now repeating that assertion.
"That is not true," Dziwisz said. "I said clearly to McEveety and [assistant director Jan] Michelini that the Holy Father made no declaration."
Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said he is heartened by Dziwisz's words: "I'm glad the Vatican is, in fact, putting out the word that the pope did not endorse this movie."
Gibson, who sunk $25 million into "The Passion of the Christ," denies that his film, which portrays the torture of Jesus, maligns Jews.