The
Da Vinci Code - don’t let yourself be duped!
by Sr. Mary Charles Mayer, RSM
Director of Communications
The Da
Vinci Code by Dan Brown is an internationally released thriller that has landed
on the New York Times bestseller list and has been read by close to 30 million
people. The movie of the same name will be released on May 19 and will attract
non-Catholics and Catholics alike. The author has gone to great lengths to make
his novel appear to be meticulously researched and based on fact. He claims his
information is factual, accurate and even historical but in reality it is a
new-age thriller with a radical feminist agenda that seems bent on undermining
the faith of Catholics and Christians alike. It is more than unfortunate that
the Catholic Church has been made the target of the absurdities and blatant
lies that the book leads viewers to believe. It does demonstrate, however, that
Catholics, Christians and non-Christians alike are uneducated historically and
theologically and are easily duped and drawn into believing a clever author’s
own conspiracy and wild fantasies and insane claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene
and the Church. But the real sorrow is that many people’s most sacred beliefs
have been shaken and in some cases even shattered as a result of reading the
book. Some people have even left the Church because they believed what the book
proposes as truth.
The story involves the
Catholic Church, secret societies, conspiracies and fictional information about
Jesus that is represented as "truth" when in fact it is the product
of Dan Brown’s overly fertile imagination. Some of the claims of Dan Brown’s
book are that Jesus Christ was not divine; he was only man; Jesus married Mary
Magdalene and they had a daughter together; Mary Magdalene is to be worshiped
as a goddess; the Bible was put together by a pagan Roman emperor and many
other untruths. Brown proposes that the Catholic Church has conspired to keep
this a secret for centuries within secret societies and has gone so far as to
commit murder in order to accomplish its goal.
Fortunately, there have been
Christian and Catholic authors and theologians that have come to the fore to
champion the cause of Truth and to challenge Dan Brown’s claims with books
written to dispel the web of macabre illusion Brown has spun for his readers.
The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code, written by Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel was published within months of the release of
Brown’s book and effectively debunks, disproves and clarifies the untruth of
Brown’s claims. Catholic Answers from
Catholic Exchange and
Ascension Press have teamed up to respond in an effective Catholic response to
the damaging effects of this cultural phenomenon. They have developed a
multi-faceted outreach initiative that combats the fraudulent assertions made
in The Da Vinci Code. Resources may be found on
www.DaVinciOutreach.com to help parishes respond to the movie. These include a
"Parish Action Plan", a Da Vinci Discussion
Night Study Program, an Adult Faith Formation 4-week Study Program, a 40-page
Teacher’s Resource Guide, with 10 lesson plans, downloadable Study Guides,
parish flyers, teacher resources, downloadable Homily Helps and much more all
FREE. They also have the comprehensive question and answer book available at a
steep discount depending on the number of copies ordered.
The
Anyone reading the book or going to see the movie should beware and not be taken in by Brown’s own conspiracy against the Church.