“The Passion” soars back to the top, Cardinal expresses support

Washington D.C., Apr 11, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Mel Gibson’s  “The Passion of the Christ” rose back to the top of the box-office during Holy Week, while Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington D.C. expressed his support of the movie.

Thousands of Christians made “The Passion” a part of their Easter weekend, lifting the movie saga back to the top spot with $17.1 million.

“That's unprecedented. I've never seen that before. 'The Passion' is just rewriting box-office history,” Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, told the Associated Press.

"This is a holy day, and this movie is tailor-made for a weekend like this. It's not just a movie. It's a religious experience for many people," he said.

On Easter Sunday, Cardinal McCarrick told Fox News Sunday that “people come up to me and say, ‘Have you seen the movie?’ and we know what they are talking about. So I think that it has. And, as far as I can see, for the good.”

“I know of no one who has seen it who has gone away saying, ‘I hate that people or that people.’ I know of no one who has said that. I have met people who have only said, ‘Look what God did for us’,” the Cardinal added.

The Cardinal revealed that, while watching the movie  “I cried a little. I closed my eyes at sometimes when the beatings got too terrible.”

“It reminded me of the suffering of the Lord, and I preach to people all the time that he did it not for the whole human race as a bunch, but for us as individuals. So he did it for me. And I have not always responded to that love,” he concluded.