Thiersee production of the Passion Play, which is based on the Oberammergau script but is much shorter, was criticised last week by the Council of Manchester and Salford Jews. It finished in Manchester on Monday and opens in Dublin today. Aid. Michael Fidler, the president, said at a council meeting: "We regret that any Jewish person has taken part in the presentation or has vetted the script in advance. We regret it is being put on in Manchester, and the sooner it is out of our system the better."
A committee has been formed in Dublin to carry out a protest campaign against the play being performed in the city. This was decided at a meeting attended by 30 laymen and one clergyman.
Mr. Frank Golden, the organiser, said the play would give the impression that the Jews, per se, continued to bear the responsibility for Christ's death.
THE National Theatre of Poland will open this year's World Theatre season at the Aldwych Theatre with "The Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord", a 16th century Polish morality play by Nicolas of Wilkowiecko.
The company directed by Kazimierz Dejtnek, will give eight performances of the play from March 27. Woyciech Siemon, who is known throughout Poland for his comic as well as his serious roles, will play Christ. Also in the cast is a choir of 24 boys.
TWO bishops from the Soviet Union are in Rome to attend a meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law. They are Bishop Joseph Matulaitis Labukas, apostolic
administrator of the Archdiocese of Kaunas, Lithuania, and Bishop Julian Vaivods, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Riga, Latvia. Both countries are Republics of the Soviet Union.
A Vatican source said that permission for the two bishops to attend the meeting had been obtained by Pope Paul from Mr. Podgorny, the Soviet President during their meeting on January 30.
DR. B. R. SEN, DirectorGeneral of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, told a conference of representatives of European Freedom-from-Hunger Campaign committees in Rome that their first task-to alert the public mind to the problem of hunger-had been achieved to a considerable degree and it was now time to "canalize the interest and will to action which has been aroused, to achieve objectives of the highest priority".
Proposals at the meeting included the need to increase the immediate availability of food, efforts to reduce the "intolerable" losses of scarce food through waste, and ways of enabling the "untapped" potential of young people to contribute effectively to development.
PROTESTANTS in Madrid are having misgivings over last-minute changes in the draft law on religious liberty. They fear that a change in Article 9, if applied, might impede circulation of devotional literature on the ground that it was propaganda.
Another objection arises from the suppression of Article 12, which permitted "Spaniards moved by their religious convictions" to set up social, educational and cultural establishments.
THE HOLY SEE is not moving towards recognition of the Oder-Niesse line, Poland's present border with Germany. This was stated by Vatican officials last week to allay fears expressed by refugees in Germany from the former German areas now under Polish control.
FEARS that the Philippines might go the same way as Cuba and turn to Communism were expressed at a seminar for social action held at Quezon. The Papal Nuncio in the Philippines attended the final session. Speakers emphasised that, as in Cuba, there was an "oppressive and feudalistic system which makes life wretched for all but the privileged few."
SPAIN'S bishops have ".-7 announced plans to reform the nation's Catholic Action organisation. The Action groups are to be more closely tied to the direction of the bishops, and the lay leadership will be increased by the establishment of a national coordinating council made up of lay delegates from diocesan Catholic Action groups.
ASMALL minority of Catholics who would Like to get rid of the Rosary are those who cannot say the prayers with meaning, said Fr. Patrick Peyton, director of the Family Rosary Crusade in Milwaukee last week.
"It is a misleading and false impression that Vatican II meant for the Rosary to be deemphasised. It is not reflecting the Council or the masses, but only a tiny minority."
ANEW BIBLE in Italian, the result of collaboration between Catholic, Orthodox,
Protestant and Jewish scholars,
will be published this year by the Mondadori publishing company in Milan.
The "Ecumenical Bible" was prepared by a private inter religious commission. The translation of the Scriptures was prepared under its direction by 36 biblical scholars chosen from among various religions confessions and communities of Italy.
CAMDINAL MARELLA, head of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Christians, said at a Press conference in Rome that the secretariat is preparing a book of "Suggestions for Dialogue" between Catholics and nonChristians.
The directory, which had been requested by the Catholic bishops, would be couched in the most general terms because of divergent conditions in various parts of the world. He described it as "technical and psychological rather than theological".