The Cross and Constantine's Sword

JAMES Carroll, 65, noted author, National Book Award winner and columnist for the Boston Globe, has recently completed a powerful new documentary film entitled Constantine's Sword in which he examines the roots of religiously inspired violence in the world.

Working with Oscar nominated director Oren Jacob, Carroll explores the centuries long history of anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church and its corollary in America's evangelical movement.

The new film, which is based on Carroll's 2001 book of the same name, details centuries of ruthless violence committed in Christianity's name. He also warns us that the concentration of military, religious and political power in U.S. could ultimately lead to a concentration of the same "us-versus-them" dogmas that the launched the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.

Carroll, a practicing Catholic and former priest first, entered the Paulist Seminary in Washington in the crucible of the early 1960s, where he found his life transformed by the civil rights struggles of that era.

Initially a conservative Catholic, Carroll grew up in a devout Irish American family. His father, an Air Force general, served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1962 and warned President John F. Kennedy's administration of the Soviet missile build up in Cuba.

"My father served as chief of staff of the United States Air Force in Europe in the late 1950's. He was the senior American Catholic in Europe at a time when Catholics were attuned to discrimination in the upper levels of American culture and society," Carroll said during an interview with the Irish Voice.

"Given his status then my family were able to have an audience with Pope John XXIII."

Meeting the Pope was an astounding experience for the family and for Carroll personally. Intimidated by the imposing spectacle of the Vatican, their anxiety evaporated when a small rotund man walked in and instantly made them all welcome.

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Nster.com