Veil of Truth?

Mel Gibson, the Catholic visionary director of "The Passion of the Christ, " introduces St. Veronica into his own "biblical account" of Christ carrying his cross to Calvary's hill. The scene that identifies her takes place as Jesus stumbles to the ground under the weight of the cross. She approaches him from the crowd and offers a drink of water and her head covering to Jesus to blot the blood and sweat from his face. After being pushed away by the Roman soldiers, she is seen watching the proceedings while holding the head covering, which clearly reveals the facial features of Christ in blood.

Growing up Catholic, I learned about St. Veronica when I first began to pray the Stations of the Cross. I was also taught that she journeyed from Jerusalem to Rome with the veil and used it for the healing and conversion of the Emperor Tiberius.

This is just one of a host of extra-biblical items Mel introduces into his extremely Catholic motion picture.

T. A. McMahon