A former numerary's critical analysis of the Da Vinci Code

I’m looking forward to this weekend.  The Da Vinci Code movie will finally be released!  Hopefully we will then be released from this recent infatuation with Dan Brown’s piece.  God willing, this movie will mark the end of the Da Vinci Code madness. 

Why the heck are we providing factual clarifications in response to a work of fiction anyway?  Are people really so foolish as to not recognize that Brown’s list of “facts” at the beginning of his book is also just part of the fiction?  [Tolkien, in his Forward to the Fellowship of the Ring, refers to his trilogy as a history.  Should we therefore be researching the existence of hobbits, elves, goblins, and ents?].  Men of virtue should have a healthy skepticism of conspiracy theories.

One of the very few positive results from this fad is the increased availability of accurate information in regards to Opus Dei.  Not that Opus Dei has ever sought much press coverage.  The pursuit of sanctity in ordinary life is tough to sell in a sound bite, though founder St. Josemaria’s quick points in his spiritual classic The Way might be the closest thing we’ve seen to “spiritual sound bites.”  The trouble is, after reading them one has to take time and consider (in silence) the points made by the saint.  Doing so takes discipline.  Believe me, I have been trying to do so for 15 years and I have yet to pray well or consistently. 

I’m not a member of Opus Dei (I was a celibate member for just under a year and a half in 1990 and 1991, but it was not my vocation).  That being said, I still have great affection for Opus Dei, St. Josemaria, and his first successor, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo. 

Let’s hope and pray that a handful of those 40+ million Da Vinci Code readers are intrigued enough to honestly look into Opus Dei and the Catholic Church.  Being readers, hopefully they’ll pick up a high quality history of the Church, or maybe the Catholic Catechism.  If interested in Opus Dei, let’s hope they grab a biography of St. Josemaria or Don Alvaro del Portillo.  If they do, they’ll understand why men like John Paul II and our present Holy Father have such great affection for those two men of God, and for Opus Dei.  Equally important, they’ll understand why Opus Dei appeals to a regular Joe like you or me.