The real battle begins

Reason and good sense prevailed when our Movie and Television Review and Classification Board allowed the exhibition of the film, The Da Vinci Code, albeit with an R-18 rating. Thus, kids, which in this jurisdiction means young men and women below the age of 18, will not be allowed to see the much-awaited movie.

The assumption seems to be that 18 years is the Maginot Line which dictates whether our youth will be able to think critically, or swallow the film’s fictional themes hook, line and sinker. In the United States, we’re told, the Motion Pictures Association of America rated the film PG-13. This doesn’t mean that American youth are deemed more mature, only that their society holds a more realistic view of film productions than we do.

Also, since no one seems to control the DVD market in this country, and the discs are often viewed in the privacy of one’s own home, our kids will likely see the film – the real McCoy, not those rip-offs of a National Geographic Channel documentary – anyway, whatever the censors, oops!, the "classifiers," say.

Still, in this country, half a glass of water is often better than an empty one, so we’ll take it. You may have to search a little harder, though, for a theater where the movie is being shown, since a major chain (ok, let’s say it, the SM Cinemas) will not be exhibiting it due to an internal policy black-balling all R-rated films.

In explaining its decision, the MTRCB said the film did not "constitute a clear, express or direct attack on the Catholic Church or religion." The "arguments" (sic) presented in the film were "tackled within an academic discourse or theoretical context by the movie’s characters." (Itals. ours) But, in the end, said Board chair Consolisa Laguardia, the film was "balanced."

One problem, I think, that has dogged this Ron Howard opus is that it has been taken much too seriously. It won’t be the first time in history that the Catholic Church and Jesus Christ Himself have been savaged by heretics and pop theologians. In the 13th century, the Church had a solution for this – the "Holy Office" or Inquisition and its notorious torture machines like the wrack, thumb screws and flogging to persuade heretics and apostates to recant or die an ignominious death by burning at the stake.

But these days, not even the threat of excommunication seems to evoke the same sense of horror and isolation it once did. And, contrary to The Da Vinci Code, the Church does not send murder squads or fanatical "Opus Dei monks" to enforce its decrees and doctrines, achieve long-term political goals or maintain "conspiracies of silence" to keep centuries-old secrets from the faithful.

But for the MTRCB to characterize the film’s (and the book’s) plot line as "academic discourse" or even situate the story in a "theoretical context" is way too much. This is the kind of thinking that misleads people into seeing in the film a serious challenge to deeply-held beliefs of our Faith. I read the book and I fully intend to see the movie. I found the book interesting, not disturbing. It was, as its author Dan Brown kept saying, fiction, a literary creation, a figment of his extremely fertile imagination.

Whether the book was "intricately layered with remarkable research," as the book jacket crows, or a product of shoddy inquiry is hotly debated. But the claims of the book – including the allegedly "invented" divinity of Christ, His supposed marriage to Mary Magdalene and their parenting of the child Sarah, and the manipulations wrought by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. – spawned numerous counter-attacks which were equally as candid and profound as the shocking claims.

The motivations, careless research methods and "intelligence" of Dan Brown have been assailed. Even his statements of "Fact" in his unusual preface are debunked: The Priory of Sion was not founded in 1099, but set up "for fun" in 1956 by four young Frenchmen. One of the founders was a convicted embezzler. Opus Dei is not a "sect" and does not practice brain-washing and coercion. Its supposed practice of "corporal mortification" is misrepresented by the book’s arch-villain, the albino monk Silas. And, incidentally, the Opus Dei doesn’t have monks. There are many other alleged inaccuracies, even in Brown’s descriptions of ostensibly "factual" locations.

According to CNN World News, the albinos of the world have risen as one to protest the false depiction of albinos. For instance, albinos do not have red eyes like Silas.

The Church, for its part, has enthusiastically engaged in the debate by citing concrete historical evidence of Christ’s divinity and celibacy, and of the accuracy and primacy of the Four Gospels, well BEFORE the Council of Nicea.

As for the "truth" behind the Holy Grail, and the founding by Jesus and Mary Magdalene of a "royal bloodline" which still exists in France, the Church regards the sources utilized by Brown as worthless, discredited and largely apocryphal, if not outright products of fantasy.

Hey, this man Dan Brown is a writer of fiction, a teller of stories and tall tales. He is not a theologian, historian, art expert or even a "symbologist" like his main character, "Harvard Professor" Robert Langdon. No matter how outrageous or offensive his story line is, he is entitled to his literary license. He is, however, bound by defamation laws all over the world, which is how wide his readership has become.

But he writes entertainment. Neither the book nor the movie warrants any loftier treatment than that. Neither should be read as a substantive assault on our Faith. It is, to me, no more offensive, although perhaps more engrossing, than ribald tales (and movies) of Cassanova frolicking with nuns or fictional depictions of scheming clerics acting as the grey eminence to weak and gullible royals.

To see the Da Vinci movie as a threat to our Catholic Faith is ridiculous. Most Catholics, even those engrossed in "reality shows" and docu-dramas which blur the line between fact and fiction, don’t seem disturbed by the movie’s "outrageous" themes.

But I don’t doubt that some, youth and adults alike, will indeed be disturbed by The Da Vinci Code. If so, why then it’s an opportunity to educate oneself, reflect on the mysteries of our religion – I suppose that’s why they call it faith – and make informed decisions about the choices we’ve made for ourselves. Rather than weakening our Faith, The Da Vinci Code could well renew and strengthen it.