Posted on 03/16/2005 7:46:15 PM PST by kevin fortuna
ROME -- As is just about everywhere else in the world, Rome is awash in editions of "The Da Vinci Code," the blockbuster whodunit with a narrative that includes a Vatican coverup of an explosive theological secret: Jesus was married! Despite the heretical plot twist, in which Jesus fathered a child with his wife, Mary Magdalene, Dan Brown's novel was on sale at the bookstore of Gemelli Polyclinic, the Rome hospital where Pope John Paul II underwent a tracheotomy last month and spent 18 days recovering before being released Sunday.
Well, enough is enough. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, once a top dogma enforcer in Vatican City and currently archbishop of Genoa, broke the Vatican's virtual silence on the book this week and told Vatican Radio that nobody should read it and certainly Catholic bookstores should stop selling it.
"Don't buy and don't read that novel," he said. And in remarks to Il Giornale, a conservative newspaper, Bertone declared: "There's a big anti-Catholic prejudice. It aims to discredit the church and its history through gross and absurd manipulations."
Bertone explained why, two years after the novel's debut, the church ought to be putting its foot down: Too many people are taking the book's mix of art, architecture, secret societies, weird symbolism and hocus-pocus as -- if you'll excuse the expression -- the Gospel truth.
"You can't be a modern youth without having read it. The book is everywhere," Bertone said. "There is a very real risk that many people who read it will believe that the fables it contains are true." Until two years ago, he belonged to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the official defender of orthodoxy in the Vatican.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It was lightweight fiction. I don't really see why it became popular. OK plot, but from a theological view I considered it blasphemous.
The Cardinal could not have made a better sales pitch FOR the book if he had tried.
The problem that I see with this book (I am not a Catholic nor have I read the book) is that too many people are treating a pice of fiction as though it was true.
The sad thing is that many can't tell the difference between biblical truth and a fictional novel.
They get their history lessons from Oliver Stone and vote for candidates based on 30 second political ads.
agreed. and this will make more people read it. one interesting question, though, is whether or not there would be some huge outcry if the book were debunking a religion other than catholicism... don't know the answer but thought it was a fair, provocative question
Exactly.
It was an entertaining read, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought anyone would have believed it to be true.
As I said, I enjoyed the book, but it was then traded off to the used book store. It certainly didn't qualify as a "keeper."
We need a book club here on FR :)
Note that his strongest response was to asking Catholic bookstores to stop carry the book.
Far different from declaring that the author must be hunted down and brutally murdered.
Great idea! I've just finished The Devil in the White City. Just out in paperback, I believe. I learned a lot about the Chicago World's Fair and the man who may have been America's first serial killer.
The work is non-fiction and heavily footnoted, but it reads like a popular novel. 3.5 stars out of 5.
Popular to who?
I won't read the book, as I am old, educated and experienced enough to understand that twisted religious conspiracy theories are, well to put it bluntly, twisted.
But I am not an anti-organised religion zealot.
I am not a member of any of them, but that does not mean I am against all of them.
I couldn't even get through it. The whole thing read like a treatment for a movie (but a LOT of fiction written in the last 30 or so years does, too). And the Catholic bashing is just so... so... "Sinead O'Connor." The rest of it is all just pop-psych psycho-babble.
I do admit, however, that I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose.
I just cannot comprehend how a work of fiction can cause such a wildfire! Goodness, it is only fiction! Yet the cacophony of excitement surrounding this book is just insane!
I would also recomment Eco's 'The Name of the Rose.'
I've read Devil in the White City as well. I can't fathom how those structures were constructed in a relatively short time without modern machinery, but with mostly manpower. I do wish he had some more photographs in it.
Any theory that may discredit the orthodoxy of the church (especially the Catholic Church) is applauded and encouraged. Most of us who were born into our respective faiths (I am Catholic) are really living out of the depleting reservoir of the efforts of those generations before ours. Like the dying days of the Roman empire, customs that reflected Roman culture and tradition in government and society at large were through the years turned into pomp and symbolism, losing in the end their inherent social/cultural values and purpose. As a result of these lost cultural anchors of the Roman Empire, we (Europeans) slowly slipped into the inevitability of the Dark Ages.
Younger generations have lost their connection the teachings of their faith and were replaced with a pseudo/secular view of religion in general. You see alot of good documentaries about religion and faith on TV however you feel a disconnect, as if a scientific inquiry was made with no disscussion of pure faith. The Da Vinci codes plays out like a X-File for religion. Conspiracy,lies orthodoxy,etc. What I find interesting is why would the author go out hisr way to discredit the church but at the same time make legitimate the arguement that Jesus Christ did exist and was an actual historical figure (without the deferencial aspect of course!)
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