Bishop Michael Sheridan, S.T.D.
May 18, 2006 5:00 PM

For three years Dan Brown’s potboiler "The Da Vinci Code" has been the top-selling work of fiction in the United States. The popularity of the book is due in no small measure to the fact that more than a few Catholics have plunked down their money to see what all the talk is about.

I can’t cite numbers on this, but I’ve sat next to enough Catholics on airplanes who are clutching the volume tightly and are very anxious to engage me in conversation about "just how much truth there is" in the book. The very fact that they ask that question causes me great concern.

Let me confess at the outset: I have not read "The Da Vinci Code." I have no intention of reading "The Da Vinci Code." Nor do I intend to see the film version. I value the little time that I have to indulge in reading. I’m not about to waste it on tripe like this, which is written to convince the reader that Christianity is from its inception a fraud, and that the Catholic Church has been about the business of covering up that fraud for 2,000 years. Besides, enough has been written about the novel that I feel as if I have read it.

As I think most of us know, the objections raised to Brown’s work are not based upon the fact that the book is identified as an historical novel. There have been plenty of those — and good ones. Good historical novels use real people, places and events as the context of the story. Then fictional characters and events are added. "The Shoes of the Fisherman" and "Ben -Hur" are examples of excellent historical novels — and religious ones at that.

The problem with "The Da Vinci Code" is that it intentionally confuses fact and fiction. Real people, like Jesus and Mary Magdalen, are fictionalized. The very real prelature of the church, Opus Dei, is deliberately misrepresented. In all of this the author would simply assume that we all know what is true and what is false, what is fact and what is fiction.

Sadly, however, many Christians — Catholics included — do not know the differences. Hence, the question that I get: "Bishop, just how much truth is there in this book?"

Dan Brown, in spite of his efforts to acquit himself of any form of deception in his book, has demonstrated clearly that deception is what it is all about. The author has at times called his work fiction and at other times he has called it fact. The book is touted officially as fiction, and yet, on June 9, 2003, in an appearance on the NBC news program Today, Matt Lauer asked Brown: "How much of the book is based on reality in terms of things that actually occurred?" Brown responded: "Absolutely all of it." So what is it, Mr. Brown, fact or fiction? I guess we just have to try to figure that out for ourselves.

Other than the fact that Jesus, Mary Magdalen and other biblical characters and historical insitutions actually existed, it would seem that virtually nothing of the book is anything other than pure (or impure) fiction. Even knowing that, however, does not settle the matter. "The Da Vinci Code" is blatantly anti-Catholic and blasphemous. The claims of the book that Jesus married Mary Magdalen, fathered her child and secretly wished that she become the goddess-like head of the church are not simply preposterous; they are insulting to the Christian faithful and to God Himself. Not even Hollywood would touch the novel if it had been anti-Semitic or racist. But anti-Catholic? That’s fine.

Add to all this Brown’s insistence that the divinity of Jesus was a creation — indeed, a fabrication — of the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. and we have not a benign work of fiction, but a wholehearted attempt to discredit Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. Even John Calley, the co-producer of the film version of "The Da Vinci Code," has called it "conservatively anti-Catholic."

St. Paul’s words of caution to his disciple St. Timothy ring very true: "Stay on in Ephesus in order to warn certain people there against . . . busying themselves with interminable myths and genealogies which promote idle speculations . . . " (1Tim 1: 3-4). "Have nothing to do with profane myths or old wives’ tales" (1Tim 4: 7a). "For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but, following their own desires, will surround themselves with teachers who tickle their ears. They will stop listening to the truth and will wander off to fables" (2Tim 4: 3-4).

Much of the country will be flocking to the film version of "The Da Vinci Code," which opens this weekend. How many Catholics will be among those moviegoers? How many of the faithful will gladly swell the coffers of Dan Brown and the producers of the film? Both the book and the movie are attacks on us and on our beliefs. I don’t think I care to contribute to that cause.

What about you?