Is the Latest Holy War Really A Catholic Jihad Against 'The DaVinci Code'?
By Cassandra Frost
5-22-6

Transcribo íntegramente este comentario, que me gustaría haberlo hecho personalmente. La traducción vendrá después.

I watched "The DaVinci Code" last Friday afternoon.

Yeah, baby.

What a good movie.

I thought the Catholic Church was supposed to be all about loving your brother, peace, acceptance and tolerance? It seems that, instead of embracing the philosophies of "live and let live" and "turn the other cheek," the Catholic Church has declared a "jihad" against "The DaVinci Code."

After watching it, I now see why they are throwing such a huge hissy fit.

Imagine that the Holy Grail is not a chalice, but rather a living female descendant of Jesus Christ.

Imagine that "The DaVinci Code" leads to discoveries that Christianity is based on manmade myths that favor little groups of power hungry men who want to control the world.

Blasphemous.

Imagine that the main character, Robert Langdon, has written a book illustrating religious symbology that celebrates the divine feminine -- the idea that women hold equal spiritual power to men.

Whoa.

How sacrilegious!

Finally, imagine that the silver screen flickers with the bloody images and the speakers shake with the sounds of genocide committed during the Inquisition?

No wonder they're upset.

Oh, but wait. According to the best selling book's author, Dan Brown, this is a fictional work.

I forgot.

Sorry.

I've watched some recent newscasts with the "talking heads" telling us how the movie challenges the Catholic Church's "facts."

And these "facts" are not challenged by the huge networks; rather they are parroted over and over by lazy reporters. This might be ok for Catholic TV broadcasts, but not for anyone calling themselves journalists in our media.

Who let the Dogma out? Or is it more like "Dogma Bites Newsboy"?

It's not bad enough that recent headlines have been portraying some Catholic priests as pedophiles and the resulting lawsuits are being settled as the Church pays the victims millions of dollars.

At least Michael Jackson surrendered.

The Catholic Church seems to be fighting back by accusing author Dan Brown of using "falsehoods" in his story.

Really? Imagination (Catholic code word for falsehoods) found in a fiction book? Say it's not so.

Conversely, does this mean that the "The DaVinci Code" contains truths they want to keep muzzled?

The controversy rages and even government officials are up in arms about the movie and the censorship thereof.

There is a petition at Petition.org is addressed to President Thabo Mbeki and Bishop Desmond Tutu that calls for "Christians and believers of the Gospel" to ban the movie from South Africa.

Lebanon has banned it.

The Executive Secretary for the Philippines, Eduardo Ermita, said he stands by his statement that:

"'The DaVinci Code,' a film adaptation of a novel of the same title, is blasphemous despite the decision of the Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to allow the film to be shown to limited audiences after giving it an R-18 rating."

The article "Another Thing" by Filipino journalist Syke Garcia (1) provides some interesting allegations as to why the Catholic Church is so hopping mad. It states that:

"So what if Jesus Christ had an affair with or married Mary Magdalene. We know of a parish priest in Metro Manila who sired two children with a lovable parishioner. To play down the scandal, the Vatican reassigned him to the USA, where he presumably goes on merrily preaching on plaisir d'amour." This translates to the "pleasures of love."

If the Catholic priests got the idea from the movie that they could have lovers and even children, would this remove choirboys from the "endangered species" list?

Oh my gosh! When I googled "plaisir d'amour" I found a version of "Plaisir D'Amour" for a string orchestra, arranged by Robert Longfield. The main character in "The DaVinci Code" is named Robert Langdon! If we take their same first names and the fact that their last names start and end with the same letters

Back to Syke Garcia. He continues:

"What the Church leaders actually fear is the effect of the Code on young priests who might begin thinking that if Jesus could fall in love with Mary Magdalene, make love with her and still go up to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, then, what's wrong with entering into intimate relationships with the willing females of their flock. Actually, this is not even prohibited by the church. What is prohibited is marrying these girls. Because if they marry, the need to provide for their family shelter, clothes, furniture and appliances."

"The DaVinci Code" describes modern-day battles that have been fought throughout history by seekers and protectors of the "Holy Grail." It depicts the lengths to which these murderous fictional characters will go to prevent that which "The DaVinci Code" reveals.

The Catholic Church is hollering that this fictional movie will destroy their very foundation. And, by association, the estimated $100 billion that goes with it.

Garcia describes how local lobbying efforts by local priests reveal their true motivation. He writes:

"The Catholic bishops are going to town with the profound spiritual warnings about the danger of mining. If they expect the mining companies to raise hush money to keep them quiet, they better think again. Mining is here to stay. Since they have apparently abandoned their spiritual mission in favor of economic policy formation, why don't they shed their religious masks and run for public office? Since they're experts in financial matters because of their tax-exempt privileges, they should finally expose themselves for what they really are: businessmen."

He goes on:

"If there will be children, these have to be schooled. All of these will take a lot of money from the Sunday collection and other fees received by the Church for sacraments. Then what will be left for the remittance to support the Vatican? So please, stop all this drama about shaking the foundations of faith. As Jimmy Tang likes to put it, 'Everything boils down to money.'"

Does the Papacy have a lot to lose if "The DaVinci Code" and "Priest as Pedophile" headlines stimulate people to discuss the Church's shameful patterns of Inquisitional genocide, child abuse and gender-based disparity in a world where people are seeking pathways of Peace, compassion and enlightenment?

Hell, yes.

The Catholic Church has everything to lose; but today's parishioners have everything to gain as they evolve from blindly obeying guilt-based, obsolete and oppressive religious dogma to embracing spiritual truths, based on acceptance, compassion and inclusion, that can truly unite us all.

And to that I say, "Amen."


(1) http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=39039

Cassandra "Sandy" Frost is an award winning e-journalist and the author of upcoming "The Cassandra Frost Collection" which will be published by Dandelion Books. Her articles can be found at: http://blogs.salon.com/0003531/ and http://blogs.salon.com/0004117/.

Read my blog at: http://thecassandrafrostcollection.blogspot.com/