Taiwanese Catholics urged viewers of the novel-adapted motion picture "The Da Vinci Code," which opened on Thursday morning, to regard the movie as mere entertainment, while charging that its author, Dan Brown, has attempted to mislead the public about Christianity by citing "pseudo-gospels more often than citing God's Word."
The Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference blasted Brown for "attacking the pillars of Christianity" by suggesting in his international bestseller that the world has, for centuries, been "held blind to the truth" about Jesus Christ.
The group was referring to the novel's central idea that Jesus wedded and had children and descendants.
The CRBC further claimed that Brown inserted "falsities" in between well-known excerpts from the Holy Bible to manipulate people's beliefs.
John Chen, secretary-general of the CRBC, presented clarifications of several "questionable points" in the story, declaring that Christ never married his disciple Mary Magdalene, let alone had children.
He remarked that many details Brown brought up in his story were derived from the lost gospels -- such as the recently uncovered Gospel of Judas -- that are considered heretical "fabricated scriptures" by the Church. The Catholic Church sees the lost gospels as lacking the authenticity of the Bible.
The CRBC also refuted a claim in the story that God's Word -- the Holy Bible -- was, in fact, man's word, due to a conspiracy headed by 4th-century Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, in which he selectively chose gospels that would be included in the book.
Chen stressed that all books in the Holy Bible were a result of the efforts of many followers rather than just one, and that nothing in the history of Christianity even remotely implied there had been a conspiracy to cover up the true identity of Jesus Christ, as suggested in "The Da Vinci Code."
It's essential that the "blasphemous implications" in both the novel and the movie must be regarded as Hollywood pop culture, he said. However, he said he would not discourage followers from reading the novel or watching the movie of "The Da Vinci Code," because the story itself, aside from its challenges to Christianity, "is a remarkable piece of work."
"True believers of God will not be influenced by such a story," he added.
The CRBC's call to the public was nonetheless a toned down remonstration against the novel, compared to the attacks dealt out by other Christians worldwide in response to the perceived blasphemous content of both novel and movie.
The CRBC members attempted to highlight some of the features of the film that exaggerated Christian practices, particularly the use of the chilice belt. Leo Maliksi, a member of the Taiwan chapter of Opus Dei -- the Catholic group that occupies a central role in the story as a violent and evil guardian of the conspiracy -- displayed a supposedly menacing chilice belt. The chilice, an implement used by Opus Dei members as means of self-discipline, is a spiked chain worn around a person's leg during the day.
In "The Da Vinci Code," one of the characters bleeds each time he wears the chilice as an act of "mortification of the flesh," a depiction which has led to speculation that Opus Dei is an extremist society which exercises their beliefs through violent or harmful practices.
However, Maliksi said that Opus Dei members were only required to wear the chain for two hours per day. "And, unlike the description in the story, the chilice does not make you bleed," he went on, saying that the feeling was more like wearing dental braces.
Maliksi emphasized that although practices of self-discipline, such as wearing the chilice and self-flagellation -- also written in "The Da Vinci Code" -- existed, members are given the freedom to employ such practices as they choose.
Opus Dei is considered a conservative Catholic organization and was founded in 1928 in Spain by Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer to teach Catholics to strive for holiness through work. It has 85,000 members worldwide, of which 2,000 are priests. |
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