Statement by NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on Stations of the Cross
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff said: "Following the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate and the Second Vatican Council, Bishops of the Catholic Church issued the guidelines `Criteria for the Evaluation of Dramatizations of the Passion' , intended to avoid antisemitic stereotyping that has been a feature of such presentations in the past, resulting in persecution and murder of Jews.
"The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies has made a series of representations to the organisers of the World Youth Day Stations of the Cross in the spirit of those guidelines, and they have assured us that this presentation in Sydney will respect the spirit of Nostra Aetate, which declares that the Church `deplores the hatred, persecution and displays of antisemitism directed against the Jews at any time and from any source'. We expect therefore that it will be nothing like the recent Mel Gibson film.
"The Board of Deputies remains concerned at some aspects of the World Youth Day presentation, particularly the inclusion of the station `Jesus before the Sanhedrin', which is not usually included in Catholic presentations. The Sanhedrin which is described in some of the Gospels, on the eve of Passover and with no defence witnesses, could not have been a legal Sanhedrin; it would have been a Roman instigation.
"The Bishops’ guidelines warn that `the historical and biblical questions surrounding the notion that there was a formal Sanhedrin trial argue for extreme caution and, perhaps, even abandoning the device' and that `[a]s a dramatic tool, it can often lead to misunderstanding'.
"We have not seen the script, but the organisers have assured us that in the ongoing attention to the details of each station, every means is being undertaken to ensure that the production will be faithful to Nostra Aetate.
"The organisers have also assured us that the SBS TV commentary will refer to Nostra Aetate and the complex situation in first-century Judaea where Rome was the colonial power, making it clear that it is both historically and theologically wrong to blame the Jews as a people for the death of Jesus.” | 
Antisemitism 