Breaking the Code

The film based on Dan Brown's 2003 fictional religious thriller novel "The Da Vinci Code" premiered May 19, enraging many Catholics around the world and prompting the Vatican to call for an international boycott. \nThe film, like the book, focuses on a supposed centuries-old Catholic Church conspiracy to suppress and destroy documentation about the marriage of Jesus Christ to Mary Magdalene and the child they produced, along with New Testament chapters like the gospel of Peter and the "true" nature of the Holy Grail. Similar to the resentment felt by Jews before the release of Mel Gibson's 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ," and the Islamic uproar over the Danish editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed this year, many Catholics have labeled Brown's book, and the film it inspired, as "historically inaccurate," "anti-Christian" and "sacrilegious."\nFather Bob Keller, a pastor of St. Paul Catholic Center, 1413 E. 17th St., said his congregation is neither for nor against an international ban of the movie. St. Paul's is instead sending a young-adult group of parishioners to view the film this weekend before returning back to the church for a spiritual question and answer session and a faith-based discussion.\n"The Da Vinci Code is wonderful fiction and any good fiction has something that has a whisper of history and some probability there, like Tom Clancy talking about the CIA or the Cold War," Keller said. "I think the pulse goes up for a Christian because you are talking about a sacred figure -- Jesus -- in the same way as if a movie were made about Mohammed, King David or Buddha. Brown used ideas from the book 'Holy Blood Holy Grail' and other connections are the license of the author. Writing an actual history of the Catholic Church and verifying it would be a whole other thing."\nArchbishop Angelo Amato, the Vatican's second highest-ranking leader behind Pope Benedict XVI, told a conference of his peers that Brown's fiction novel is packed with theological offenses and historical errors regarding Jesus, the Gospels and the Catholic Church, according to various media reports. Catholic communities from the Philippines to India to Jordan have either asked or demanded that "The Da Vinci Code" be banned from public movie screens.\nRabbi Sue Shifron of the Bloomington's Hillel Foundation said she could relate to the Catholic Church's uproar considering the international Jewish community feeling of anti-Semitic undertones broadcast around the globe from "The Passion of the Christ." She stopped short of supporting any community ban of the film and instead suggested Catholic congregations and communities invite "The Da Vinci Code" into their lives as an opportunity to reaffirm their faith in Jesus Christ, belief in the gospel and support for the Catholic Church.\n"I think even a book like 'The Da Vinci Code' that tries to tear down the basis of Christianity is really not relevant. The essence of faith is to connect with something that is much bigger than ourselves, something that helps us live better lives as individuals and as a community, something that makes the world a better place," Shifron said. "Attacking pieces of the foundation of that tradition is just not helpful; it doesn't speak to what the Catholic tradition is really about and what that tradition is trying to do. It is speaking about something that no one can fully describe or understand anyway."\n"The Da Vinci Code" is published in more than 40 languages and Brown's fiction novel has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide since its 2003 debut. The most mysterious aspect of the story involves a Catholic Church conspiracy and cover-up that can neither be confirmed, nor denied, due to the very nature of claiming certain documents were suppressed or destroyed.\nIn other words, there is no way for Brown to present an accurate and academic discussion of his claims because the only documentation available to theologians and scholars presents a very different Catholic Church reality than the author presents for audiences in his book.\nIU Classical Studies graduate student Josh Congrovesaid "The Da Vinci Code" attempts to convince people that the story is fictional based upon credible historical research, but he said the story is best described as a fictional work with the slightest shreds of fact and pseudo-fact. Congrove also did not support an outright ban of the either the book or the film, and instead called for students to view Brown's fictional art with their eyes wide open.\n"There has always been, even throughout the Middle Ages, discussions of the Catholic Church's teachings. The Protestant Reformation was an attempt to discuss doctrinal issues and texts that Martin Luther and John Calvin thought were being misinterpreted by the Church," Congrove said. "On a basic level 'The Da Vinci Code' doesn't even pretend to be scholarship expect for the layman ... Someone can say 'perhaps Jesus married Mary Magdalene' but you have to work with the evidence at hand. You are dealing with a phenomenon, the Christian faith spread over the western world, so it's unlikely someone could have suppressed all the evidence."\nSimilar to the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's 2004 "Fahrenheit 9/11," conspiracy theorists concerned with the early happenings of the Catholic Church assert the nature of a shadowy selection, revision and organization of the New Testament will have to continue to search for compelling academic evidence found only in a few sources.\nKeller likened the Catholic Church furor over "The Da Vinci Code" possible anti-Christian message to any work of fiction or art that challenges or attacks preconceived notions of what America is. He said the film should encourage students of all religious faiths and spiritual denominations to search for the truth beyond the limits of Google search tools.\n"There is no objective history. All of us in the human sciences realize there is a human capacity of mind, spirit and soul that has made the world in some ways what it is today," Keller said. "I don't think 'The Da Vinci Code' will change the Catholic Church or the need for church teachings. In fact, for a lot of people, it may squiggle the forehead. It's like saying 'so what, I still believe.'"\nInternational rumor has accused the Vatican of various conspiracies to suppress certain gospels throughout the centuries. Catholic Church murmur has always squelched such discussion, so calls to ban the film from public movie screens might receive no reply throughout the western world, except for American community bans like that in Utah of the 2005 gay-cowboy film "Brokeback Mountain."\nRabbi Sue said any community or country ban of "The Da Vinci Code" would only serve to further market the film to worldwide audiences, and that international viewings of "The Passion of the Christ," perceived as anti-Semitic, served to unite Jewish feelings of friendship, fellowship and community, and the film provided great discussions with colleagues and the greater Jewish community at-large.\n"You can't stop people from thinking or questioning, and when you respond to what you see that opens up critical thinking and every religion can stand up to that if it's founded on truth -- what is right for many people," Shifron said. "Part of it is putting the film into perspective because it is just one person's opinion. Even if it were true, Catholicism isn't necessarily that today because the Church is about uniting people and connecting them to a power greater than themselves. One book, one movie, is not going to change history as it is today, but it can help shape the future"