WHIPPANY, N.J. - Sister Rose Thering recalls that, even as a little girl, the words just didn't sound right: Did the Jews really kill Jesus?

It was the 1920s, and Thering's hometown of Plain, Wis., was mostly Roman Catholic with a smattering of Protestants and no Jews. Her curiosity soon led the young Thering to an intellectual contradiction - and then to a lifelong campaign for change within her church.

"I got the answer from my mother and from my teachers: They (Jews) killed Jesus," she said. "But I got something else from my books, that God is all good. And it didn't make sense to me, even as a little kid."

Thering realized that the prevailing teaching of her day had to be wrong, and worked long and hard to challenge her church on the matter - ultimately helping to reshape its worldwide policy. And on Sunday, a film about Thering - "Sister Rose's Passion" - is up for an Academy Award in the short documentary category.

"She was a nun in 1950s America, without any mentors or role models to follow, and she said, 'I can't live with this injustice and I have to do something about it'" director Oren Jacoby said. "It was very heroic."

The 39-minute film intersperses footage of Nazi Germany with people-on-the-street interviews, in which present-day Catholics describe being taught as children how Jews were responsible for the death of Christ. It also accompanies Thering, a professor emerita of Jewish Christian Studies at Seton Hall University, on a trip to her Wisconsin hometown.

Thering translated her message into action when she arrived at Saint Louis University in 1957 to pursue her doctorate. For her dissertation, she was encouraged by Father Trafford Maher, the head of the department of education, to pore through textbooks that were being used in secondary schools to look for examples of anti-Semitism. She found numerous passages where Jews were described in "some very ugly terms."

In a fortunate bit of timing, Thering completed her work in 1961, a year before Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council. Despite initial resistance from many Catholic educators in the United States, her research eventually was used by the Vatican as it issued a declaration in 1965 that "what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews today."

Thering's story appealed to Steve Kalafer, owner of a family of car dealerships in Annandale who had produced two other Oscar-nominated films - "More," an animated short about a lonely inventor, and "Curtain Call," a short documentary featuring actors, dancers and musicians talking about their careers. "Sister Rose's Passion" has been purchased by HBO and is scheduled to be aired on Cinemax in May.

"She has a worldwide message and there's been a worldwide response," Kalafer said. "Here she is at 84, in frail health, and she just keeps on going. She did a heroic job. There were some days we couldn't film, but she extended herself greatly."

Thering suffers from diabetes and pulmonary hypertension and is largely confined to a wheelchair. Still, she attended the Tribeca Film Festival last spring - where the film won for Best Documentary Short and she met Robert De Niro, among others - and earlier this month she flew to Los Angeles to attend the Oscar nominees' luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Among the celebrities she met there was Warren Beatty, who couldn't resist flirting with her.

"I asked him, 'What is your position here?' and he said, 'Sister Rose, I'm a seducer,'" Thering said, with a chuckle. "All the girls' eyes lit up, but mine didn't."

The instant fame that has accompanied the Oscar nomination has been taxing for Thering, who said she will not attend the Academy Awards but will instead watch the broadcast with friends.

Given the choice, she would not have sought the attention, "but if it gets the message out there, I can suffer a little bit," she said.

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On the Net:

http://theoscarsite.com/pictures2004/sr-rose.htm

AP-ES-02-23-05 1235EST