‘Historical’ fiction

The best and the easiest way to attract attention and generate publicity is to create a controversy or concoct a story that will arouse curiosity. This is a trite gimmick that has earned mega bucks at the box office for some movies. Hence it was kind of foolish for that Anti-Pornography Group to seek the banning by the MTRCB of the controversial and much heralded film "The Da Vinci Code". Its producers are perhaps so pleased with such move that they are even now secretly praying for the MTRCB to actually grant what this group is asking for. They know quite well that an MTRCB censorship spells box office success as the film will arouse greater interest when its showing is eventually allowed. And they are sure of its eventual showing despite the prior ban because they also learn by experience how easy it is to get a reversal of that decision here in the Philippines. So sometimes I am beginning to think that these anti-pornography zealots are among the drum beaters of the movie and this is their clever way of titillating public curiosity. The MTRCB should not therefore fall for this ploy. It should not restrain the showing of the movie. Rating or classifying it is the better and more prudent action to take under the circumstances.

But as Catholics we should boycott the movie as the Christian way of protesting the obviously anti-Catholic theme of the movie which is based on a book with the same title. The misleading manner employed by the author in presenting his best selling novel may make a lot of people think the book is authentic. Undoubtedly there are many among us who admire the author and defend his book. They say that there is nothing objectionable in the movie as it is merely a work of fiction. Maybe they are correct. Let me however present the other, maybe clearer, point of view from an "open letter" of the President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in New York, Mr. William A. Donohue. Mr. Donohue wrote:

Brown has been trying to have it both ways for years: at times he says his book "is a work of fiction", and at other times he says it is based on "historical fact". Indeed his novel opens with three "facts" all of which are demonstrably false.

• He says that an age-old secret society, the Priory of Sion, kept alive the untold story about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, when the fact is this tale has been exposed as a hoax concocted in the 1950s by an anti-Semitic Frenchman who sent to prison for fraud.

• He calls Opus Dei a "religious sect" and portrays it as an evil force, when the truth is it is a Catholic organization founded to help lay people (not monks) seek holiness in their daily lives.

• Most disturbing of all, he says his book is based on documents that are factual. Really? The truth is there is not a scintilla of historical evidence to support his malicious claim that the divinity of Jesus was made up in the 4th century.

Our Catholic faith teaches us to love our enemies, to be compassionate and understanding to them but it certainly did not tell us to patronize their evil works that contain vicious lies about Catholicism.

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