Leon Podles comments on the Passion

The negative reviewers don’t to seem to realize that they are in the film too: the shadowy figure that tempts Christ, saying that no human being can bear all the sins of the world, the negative, carping spirit that sneers at suffering.

The Catholic bishops have not shown enthusiasm for the film. I am not surprised. They too are a little too much like the pontifices of the Jews in the film, who have decided that it is well that one man should die to preserve the people. The bishops decided time and time again it was well that children should suffer sexual abuse and commit suicide rather than the honor of the clergy be lessened.