The Catholic Fatwa

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - May 19, 2006

Faithful Catholics have been asking how they should respond to today's release of The Da Vinci Code movie. Should they heed calls from a senior Vatican archbishop to boycott the flick? Should they picket the movie, as several ecumenical Christian groups, outraged at its blasphemies, are planning to do outside local theaters? Should they go to see it, so that they may be better prepared to discuss it with others? Should they try to ignore it and not give it any free publicity — nor lend any greater credence to the outlandish claims of a work of fiction by protesting too much? Or should they simply not be bothered by the movie and its surrounding controversy, rise above it, and choose to go or not to go based on the same criteria they use for any other film?

It should be obvious from the amount of pages dedicated in this edition to The Da Vinci Code that we do not think that ignoring it is prudent. The world in which Catholics are called to be salt, light and leaven has not ignored it, as more than 40 million copies of the book from which the movie has been adapted have been sold world-wide. Nor will the world likely disregard any film with Ron Howard as director and Tom Hanks as lead actor.

But even if the popularity of the book and the film were minimal, the Church has learned some valuable lessons in recent decades about why it is not wise to try to stay "above the fray" and ignore mendacious fictional works. One case in point is the 1963 play The Deputy by Rolf Hochhuth, which invented the tale that Pope Pius XII did nothing to help the Jews during World War II. Contemporary critics panned the play, but most in the Church thought that Hochhuth's calumnies were not worthy of a strong response. After all, everyone at the time — from Jewish and world leaders, to humanitarian agencies, to the international press, to survivors — had long praised Pius XII for his many diplomatic and personal achievements in saving thousands of Jews from certain death. But Hochhuth had planted some weeds and the weeds were not pulled up. Over the course of time, they took over the garden, as his easily disproval lies became the commonly-accepted version of what happened. Too many were either too gullible or too lazy to examine the facts.

With The Da Vinci Code, the stakes are higher and the darnel more noxious. Through the mouthpiece of character Leigh Teabing, Dan Brown reveals a "secret" known by certain enlightened historical figures but suppressed by the Church: that Jesus Christ was not divine, that he was married to Mary Magdalene who herself was the holy grail where Jesus deposited his precious blood, and that their children became medieval French kings. He portrays Jesus as an ancient hippie, who violated his own call to self-denial and to being "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven" — instead opting to preach and live free love and new age spirituality.

But Brown doesn't stop there. He attacks Christ's body, the Church, as well. The history of the Church, Brown asserts, is just a big power grab. "The early church literally stole Jesus from his original followers," Teabing alleges, "hijacking his human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power."

Lies against Christ and the Church he founded are nothing new. Jesus himself was framed by slander and some of the Jewish leaders bribed the Roman guards to lie about his resurrection. The Church has weathered calumnies across the ages and will weather these. But Catholic disciples cannot overlook the fact that these defamations are becoming more frequent and that more people, even Catholics, are proving susceptible to believing them. From the Code to the "Gospel of Judas" to the Diane Sawyer special on "Pope Joan," many after the clergy sexual abuse scandals seem prone to believe that Church leaders are capable of conspiring to hide almost anything.

That's why, out of love for Christ, for the truth and for others, the Church must respond forcefully to Brown's lies. One positive side-effect of The Da Vinci Code is that people are now raising questions about Jesus and the Church everywhere — at work, in school, in Church adult education programs, at cocktail parties. Faithful Catholics must be prepared to seize the moment, answer their queries and catechize. For most of us, that will require some homework. Thankfully, in addition to this edition, there are many new books and websites dedicated to presenting the evidence against Dan Brown's fabrications. Catholics are urged to study and assimilate their contents. The Catholic fatwa against this modern Salman Rushdie must be to present the truth boldly in love.

Should a Catholic attend the movie? Some of the faithful obviously need to see it for apostolic reasons, to be able to respond to the questions others will ask about the film. It has been suggested that Catholics who wish to go for this reason refrain from attending on the first weekend, in order to dampen the initial hype associated with a huge debut. Others have recommended, if it is possible to do so in a familiar cinema, to try to buy a ticket for another movie starting at the same time and use it to enter, so that one's money would not go into the pockets of those who are trying to profit from blasphemy.

For people to attend in other circumstances would seem to show a lack of love for the Lord. Very few of us would ever pay money to see a movie — no matter how famous the actors or gripping the storyline — if the essential background was the lie that our heroic mother was an adulteress or a whore and that our brothers and sisters were a bunch of power-hungry deceivers. We love our mothers and siblings too much for that. We should love our Lord even more.

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.