The Vatican vs The Da Vinci Code

Earlier this week, speaking for the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone exhorted Catholics around the globe not to buy nor read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. This archbishop, one of the Pope's possible successors, is also one of the guardians of the purity of the Catholic Doctrine. Whatever that means. . .

I'm a bit surprised by the tardiness of this intervention, coming more than 2 years following the novel's original release. By breaking the silence now, the Vatican demonstrated once again how they are dramatically slow to act. And to claim that they have done so now because they have become aware that the book circulates among students and young people around the world. Heck, with 20 millions copies sold, I would think that people of all ages are reading it.

More shocking is the fact that they have added a novel to the index!!! A novel, for God's sake!!! No pun intended. . .;-) There is a line between fact and fiction. The Da Vinci Code contains no satanic verses. It just an extremely good page-turning book, which contains a number of theories that are decades and centuries old. Dan Brown did not invent anything. He has brilliantly utilized existing theories and put them within the context of a darn good story. Which is why the book is so popular the world over.

Thought-provoking, yes. Fascinating and absorbing, definitely. Richly detailed and well-written, no doubt. A work that should be added to the infamous index??? No way. . . Of course, I am acutely aware that should the theories contained within The Da Vinci Code ever be proven, it would shake the Catholic Church and the Curia to the core of their foundations. But Dan Brown's book is a work of fiction. Nothin more, nothing less. . .

For several decades, high and low church officials have been wondering why such a large number of faithful have turned their backs on Catholicism. Could this be a case of voluntary blindness, I wonder?

3 commentaires:

Anonymous said...

As a practicing Catholic, I can tell you that the Church is not "blind" to any of the problems in today's world. Rather, it is one of the organizations doing the greatest amount of humanitarian, charity, spiritual, and other work, trying to fix these problems.

As I understand it, "The Da Vinci Code" makes slanderous and/or blasphemous allegations about the Church and its teachings (dumb, cliched, and trite allegations at that).

Why would any Catholic want to support the authors and publisher by buying it?

Anonymous said...

The Da Vinci Code is a novel which cashes in on the book Holy Blood Holy Grail which offers numerous alternate truths to the Catholic Church. The concept is better than the book in my opinion.
As for the Catholic Church, anyone willing to do a little research on them could uncover more historical factual damage than any author could ever invent. Not to mention other mythologies. What do Mythra, and Atus have in common with Jesus? They both were born at Christmas (Summer Solstice Solar Kings), died at Easter & rose from the dead after 3 days - and they both predate Jesus. Atus was also known as "The Lord" and "The Shepherd", shared a last supper with his fellows before being killed by being nailed to a tree (incidently, could this be the origin of the Christmas Tree? Browns next novel?) Another fellow called Odin did the same, he even had his side pierced by a spear (sound familiar?) but he was a little lazy & took 9 days to rise from the dead. There are plenty more pre-Christ gods that amazingly did everything he was supposed to have done.
The next denial from the Church will be that these mythologies ever existed...

Anonymous said...

If the Catholic Church is worried about its image, they should ban history books, not the Da Vinci Code! Newspapers too. A woman was informed recently by the Church that, since she has been using wheat-free bread for the sacrements her whole life (she is allergic to wheat), she has never taken communion and cannot go to heaven. I guess priests can only transform wheat into the body of Christ, Ha!
Oh, and actually, the Church acted rather quickly on this...It took 500 years for them to apoligize for the Spanish Inquisition and 900 for the crusades.