Christians and pro-family groups will be relieved to learn that a film on the sexual life of Jesus Christ is nothing more than an 18-year-old rumor.

The film was first reported in 1978 in the Chicago-area gossip magazine Modern People News. In addition to portraying Christ as homosexual, the purported film was to cast a French prostitute in the role of Mary Magdalene. The magazine reported that the film would be produced by a studio in Denmark.

Although a public outcry led to the cancellation of the film, rumours have persisted over the last 18 years that U.S. interests planned to revive production of the Christ film. Petitions recently appeared in churches in Toronto urging parishioners to protest the film to the Illinois attorney general’s office.

“Such a movie would be blasphemous and would be an outrage and contrary to the truth,” the petition reads.

According to the Washington-based Catholic News Service, Modern People News conducted a readers’ survey after reporting on original plans for the film. The results of the survey, which were strongly opposed to the film, were forwarded to the producer and the film was subsequently cancelled.

In the confusion following the original article, many North Americans believed Modern People News itself was taking over production of the Christ film, were forwarded to the producer and the film was subsequently cancelled.

In the confusion following the original article, many North Americans believed Modern People News itself was taking over production of Christ film. The magazine’s office in Franklin Park, Illinois, as well as attorney-general’s offices in several U.S. states, received hundreds of protest letters and telephone calls years after the article appeared.

Suzanne Scorsone, a spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said a number of pastors and parishioners have approached the communications office about the film after petitions were found at the back of some churches. She said the communications office conducted its own investigation and found that no such film was in production.

The rumor of the Christ film is circulating “at the fold level,” Scorsone said. She said the petition serves to alarm unsuspecting readers, who then pass it on as the text urges. “The dynamic is much like a chain letter,” she said.

The communications office included a notice in its October, 1996 archdiocesan newsletter, assuring pastors that the film does not exist. “If you are approached by parishioners who have received this flyer, you can assure them that, from the information the archdiocese has received, this is an unfounded rumor, and that they do not need to worry.”

The persistence of the rumor could be due in part to heightened sensitivity on the part of Christian and pro-family groups to an anti-religious tone in popular entertainment. A number of recent films and works of art have made offensive use of the life of Christ and other religious themes.