By now many thousands of people have seen Mel Gibson's controversial film, "The Passion of the Christ." Opinions will undoubtedly range all the way from "breath-takingly inspiring" to "jarringly violent" to "anti-Semitic" to "empty of hope" --- the reference being to a depiction of the Passion without the redemptive climax and centerpiece of it all, namely, the Resurrection.

This week's column is being written before the movie's Ash Wednesday release-date. It is not a review, therefore, nor does it contain any speculation about whether the film is likely to foment anti-Semitic feelings and behavior.

In fact, anti-Semitism is not even at issue here. What is of interest is the irony of it all --- not of the film itself but of its enthusiastic reception by evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants and of the carefully designed efforts to recruit them as its most zealous promoters.

In a lengthy article published last fall in The New Yorker magazine ("The Jesus War: Mel Gibson's Obsession," Sept. 15, 2003), there is a theologically revealing exchange between Mr. Gibson and the author, Peter J. Boyer.

When Mr. Boyer informed Gibson that he is a Protestant, he asked the actor-director whether his pre-Vatican II world-view would disqualify him (the author) from eternal salvation.

Gibson paused for a moment and then said, "There is no salvation for those outside the church. I believe it."

Then, referring specifically to his own wife who, like Boyer, is also a Protestant, Gibson continued: "Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. She's, like, Episcopalian, Church of England.

"She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it's not fair if she doesn't make it, she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it."

Before reviewing Mr. Gibson's theological interpretation of this "pronouncement from the chair," one needs immediately to throw the klieg lights on the central irony that is at the very core of the whole promotional whirlwind surrounding the production, pre-screening, release and distribution of this film.

Make no mistake about it: Mel Gibson believes in his heart that non-Catholics (that means not only Protestants and Anglicans, including his saintly wife, but Orthodox and other separated Eastern Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and on and on) cannot be saved.

It means, to be more specific, all those busloads of evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants, including their ministers, who have been flocking to the movie theaters to see and then rapturously praise this film.

And it means all the non-Catholic film critics, columnists, media personalities, politicians and the like who have been willing spear-carriers in the campaign to promote this film and to defend it against the so-called liberal elite and Jewish establishment (whomever they might be).

All of them are destined for hell, in the "gospel according to Gibson." He admits that he is not happy about it. He is even willing to concede that it may be "unfair," especially in the case of his wife. But that is the way it is. There has been a "pronouncement from the chair."

Which "pronouncement," Mr. Gibson does not say, but it is probably the medieval axiom, "Outside the church, no salvation."

It is an axiom, however, which officials of the Catholic Church, even before Vatican II, have interpreted differently than Mr. Gibson does.

In 1949, the Holy Office, in response to a plea for help from Cardinal Richard Cushing, then archbishop of Boston, made a distinction between members of the Church "in reality" and members of the Church "by desire." (Cushing had been under siege from the followers of Jesuit Father Leonard Feeney, who were pushing the medieval axiom to what they thought was its logical conclusion --- just like Mel Gibson.)

But the Vatican insisted that those who belong to the church "by desire" can also be saved, so long as they have good will and have not stubbornly refused to investigate the Catholic Church's claims to truth.

The Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism put it even more strongly. While non-Catholic Christians may not enjoy "full" communion with the Catholic Church, they do enjoy some "degree" of communion, enough to connect them spiritually with Christ's redemptive work.

And in its Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, the council noted that salvation is available to non-Christians as well, without prejudice to the truth of the church's own faith.

A recent issue of TV Guide contained an ad for Mel Gibson's one-hour interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC's "Prime Time." The ad referred to him as a "staunch" Catholic

"Staunch" indeed.

Father Richard P. McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.