Da Vinci Code

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Resist movies that paint Church in bad light: Symposium
Bangalore (ICNS) -- A unique symposium organized by a group of Catholic leaders in Bangalore on Dan Brown’s controversial The Da Vinci Code debunked the movie and said the Catholic Church should resist such books and films that pervert people’s minds or paint Christ in bad light.

More than 900 Catholics representing 64 Catholic and religious congregations and institutions from Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore attended the symposium at the Good Shepherd Auditorium on June 17.

The symposium was organized by Fr. Adolf Washington, Vice President of the Indian Catholic Press Association, a priest of the Archdiocese of Bangalore along with some members of the Catholic youth organization.

Fr. Washington, convenor of the symposium, debunked the claims of The Da Vinci Code through a 45-minute long graphic screen presentation before the packed auditorium.

Throughout his presentation, Fr. Washington exposed the false claims and blunders of Dan Brown and carried the audience through an emotional journey of faith by inviting the audience to recite the Nicean Creed projected on the mega screen. Many nuns and lay people were seen wiping tears off their eyes as their recited the Creed in unison.

“The Church has always been under attack and it will continue to be. <b>The new form of persecution for the Church </b>  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->  will be intellectual persecution and we cannot resist this if the Church does not take up Faith Education Initiatives on a war footing. Education of the laity on The Bible and Church Teaching is the need of the hour,” Fr. Washington said.

He pointed out that Dan Brown has hit on many subjects that people know little about like art, ancient documents, Church architecture, Pagan religions, The Grail, Knights Templar, and early Church history.

“Dan Brown has to do a lot of reading of the Scripture and history before he makes his next claim about Jesus of the Church.” “Even his claim that Jesus’ bloodline continued in France’s royalty was debunked in 1993 in French court of law,” Fr. Washington said.

On Dan Brown’s claim that the Church has silenced people who venerated Mary Magdalene because she had married Jesus, Fr. Washington said: “This is the most absurd and stupid allegation the author can make. The scriptures (ironically, that Dan Brown says was concocted by the Church) explain clearly that Mary Magdalene had a pride of place.”

“Mary Magdalene was the beneficiary of exorcism by Christ, a disciple who traveled with Jesus in a group of women and the lady who was honored by the church with the institution of a Feast in her name in the 10th Century,” he said.

On the question of Mary Magdalene’s marriage with Jesus, Fr. Washington pointed out that “Dan Brown is poorly informed that there was a sect called the essenes that remained single and it was considered an honour to God.”

“This means, bachelorhood was acceptable during the time of Jesus, quite contrary to what the author says. Furthermore, had Jesus been married he would have chosen to reveal it to his disciples. The painting of the last supper in which apostle John is alleged to be actually Mary Magdalene seated next to Jesus, we must know that it is John painted in a effeminate tone as was the style in Florentine painting and art at that time. Young men were often painted out with a feminine tone,” Fr. Washington explained.

Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore who presided over a panel of theologians who spoke their mind on the issue said The Da Vinci Code is just fiction, Dan Brown has just put ideas into Leonardo Vinci’s painting and is misleading people.

“<b>We must do everything possible to resist such books and movies</b> that pervert the minds of people or paint the Church and the name of Christ in bad light. It is our obligation to uphold our Faith…symposium and forums like this will surely provide opportunity to deepen and strengthen our faith,” Archbishop Moras said.

Fr. Udaya Kumar, Professor of Moral Theology at St. Peters Pontifical Seminary said that it is not surprising how so many have become curious about Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code instead of going back to our Bibles to find the real Truth.

Fr. S Jayanathan, Secretary of the Laity Commission in the Archdiocese briefed the need to make a critical analysis of everything we watch on the screen.

Fr. Mathew Vekathanam, Theology Professor at Carmelaram said that this is an age when confusing theologies and ideologies that are sweeping the world and every Catholic must gear up to strengthen one’s faith in the Bible and Church teaching.

Fr. Gilbert Choondal, Director of Catechetics (Kristu Jyothi College) emphasized that unless we have proper media literacy programmes in the Church, we will continue to be swayed by such movies.

“We must promote Good like the Vatican had promoted Gandhi and Schindler’s List…lets be Messengers of Good News than bad news,” he said.

Symposium Co-ordinator, Jose Jacob introducing the movie to the audience said: “Dan Brown in an earlier interview called his work pure fiction, but when money began pouring in.”
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