It wasn't a parish community center. It was a movie theater. But it was hard to tell the difference.

A bevy of parish youth groups and church-going community members packed into Cinema 6, 501 Benner Pike, on Wednesday night, many of them with the ashes of the Catholic faith on their foreheads.

The occasion was the opening of The Passion of The Christ, the new Mel Gibson-directed movie about the last hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The film sold out six of its seven showings Wednesday, many of the tickets going to local parishes, which bought blocks of tickets for certain screenings, said Frank Dix, Cinema 6 manager.

Passion has sparked a torrent of controversy in recent months, relating to its graphic violence, and to claims that its depiction of Jews is anti-Semitic. Some members of the blanched crowd that left the 7 p.m. screening Wednesday night said they were affected by the film.

"It was intense," State College Area High School student Tim Perez said. "I cried for about half of it."

Perez belongs to a youth group from Christ Community Church, 1606 Norma St., which saw the film as a group.

"Seeing what they actually did to [Jesus] and knowing that he could have stopped it at any time ... I just couldn't handle it," Perez said.

When asked if the film had anti-Semitic undertones, he responded that he didn't see "anything like that."

"It appeals to anybody," he said. "It's an overall good movie."

Pastor Randy Smith, of the Bethel Church of the Nazarene, said Penn State students and State College residents will have a chance to express their own freedom of speech at a question-and-answer forum at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Bethel Church, 3601 S. Atherton St.

Outside the theater on Wednesday night, Pastor Smith was handing out business cards with information about the forum.

"It's an open forum for people to share their experience [with the film]," he said. "If people have questions from a biblical purpose, or if they need any sort of counseling, we want to be able to offer that."

Smith said that although the graphic images in the film are hard to watch, they are important to understanding the message of Jesus.

"[The torture scenes] brought out the reality of exactly what it was, what he was doing," he said. "The R rating stands for real."

As for the other potentially volatile aspect of Passion, Smith dismissed the notion that the film was anti-Semitic.

"If anything, it portrayed a few individuals, the leaders of the Church, negatively ... It showed how they rallied the crowd and generated a mob mentality."