Heresy—it starts with the age-old argument denying Our Lord’s celibacy: Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. Yawn…Outside of the fact that I am really bored hearing the pagan world say time and time again that celibacy doesn’t work—that really only means it doesn’t work for them—it is just heretical to hold the belief that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had kids by her. That doctrine effectively denies the apostolic succession of the Church. Those who believe that are not to be considered Catholics and really need to find a good Unitarian church to keep them entertained.

Malice—would you believe that, according to Brown, “during three hundred years of witch hunts, the Church burned at the stake an astounding five million women” (p. 125)? Where does Dan Brown get his research from, Ms Magazine? When pressed against the wall for substantiation of obnoxious claims like this—and of course unable to provide answers—Brown always retreats to the excuse that this book is “just a work of fiction.” I wish his malice were so fictitious.

Deceit—Brown just can’t hide his deceitful, manipulative side with things like this: “As part of the Vatican’s campaign to eradicate pagan religions and convert the masses to Christianity, the Church launched a smear campaign against the pagan gods and goddesses, recasting their divine symbols as evil” (p. 37). Uh, no Dan, how about “the Vatican” did not exist when you said this happened, and the Church cast the pagan gods and symbols as evil maybe because they are evil? That’s a bit more accurate.

Just plain stupidity—apparently Dan Brown believes that “the Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers…using it to expand their own power” (p. 233). Wait, I thought that the Church was “His original followers”—silly me! Or try this one: “Jesus suspects He will soon be captured and crucified. So He gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone. As a result, Peter expresses his discontent over playing second fiddle to a woman. I daresay Peter was something of a sexist” (pp. 247-248). Oh, spare me!

I could go on about the Da Vinci nonsense, but you get my gist. If the movie is anywhere near as horrible as the book, we can expect more Catholic-bashers to come out of the woodwork emboldened by the screed that passes for literature and art nowadays.

Let’s all do something different on The Da Vinci Code movie’s opening night, May 19th: let’s stay away from it in droves. Mother Church would approve!

Sincerely Yours in Christ,Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

Cita: http://www.hli.org/sl_2006-04-07.html