“SEEK THE TRUTH,” says Sony’s trailer for The Da Vinci Code. “The Da Vinci Code describes history as I have come to understand it,” says author Dan Brown. “I left the Catholic Church, and now that I’ve read The Da Vinci Code, I know I did the right thing,” said a neighbor to one of my daughters.
Sony Wants Your Money for Attacking the Church
So my neighbor feels vindicated, Dan Brown thinks he’s actually discovered a history suppressed for centuries, and Sony wants you to come spend your hard-earned dollars finding the truth for yourself, with their high-budget help, of course. With recommendations like these, you know that TDVC is not where you want to spend your money.
As a faithful Catholic, you’re rightly concerned. You’ve heard that TDVC invents a world where Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, where no one thought Jesus was God until the Emperor Constantine “upgraded” him, and where Leonardo da Vinci was a guardian of these suppressed “truths” and embedded symbolic clues about them into his artwork.
You saw a clip from TDVC that it depicts the main characters aghast because there is “no chalice” in Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. But you’ve seen copies of the painting, and you know that it shows thirteen people, thirteen loaves, and thirteen cups, so why is this somehow a conspiracy? You’ve heard that the assassin in the movie is a sinister monk from Opus Dei. But you know that Opus Dei has no monks, so why is TDVC considered factual by anyone?
Mark Your Calendars for the “Othercott”
And most importantly, you know that our Church has asked us not only to look at this book with a critical eye, but also to boycott the movie. Archbishop Angelo Amato is the second in command of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On April 28, while speaking at a seminar on the Church in the media, he asked all attendees to boycott TDVC movie due to its “calumnies, offenses, and historical and theological errors.” As a faithful Catholic, you know that boycotting this movie is important.
Barbara Nicolosi of Act One Productions has improved on the idea of a boycott. She explains that the opening-weekend box office works as a kind of “ballot box” for Hollywood, and we’re all invited to vote. Every ticket you buy counts as a vote, and the “ballot box” closes on May 21. If some other movie earns more money on its opening weekend, TDVC loses its blockbuster status. Barbara calls this an “Othercott.”
Vote Early and Vote Often
So here’s the plan for this coordinated “Othercott.” Let’s take our large Catholic families to see the other big studio movie opening May 19: Dreamwork’s Over The Hedge. In fact, let’s take our large Catholic families to see Over The Hedge, come back home to tell the whole neighborhood what a great movie it is, and then go back to see it with the neighborhood kids in tow.
If you can’t actually attend Over The Hedge that weekend, visit www.fandango.com and buy tickets anyway. Consider it a donation to Barbara’s “Othercott,” and a service to our Church.
This is one time we really can vote early and vote often. Let’s vote for Over The Hedge on May 19, 20 and 21. It’s the kind of message that Hollywood will hear loud and clear.
© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange
The mother of four daughters who’ve grown up too quickly, Toni Delphine VallesKey Collins (the real TDVC) finds herself distressed that Dan Brown used her initials when he titled his diatribe against her Church. An investigation is pending to see if a hidden conspiracy might have been the basis for this secretive usurpation of her name.
