Christian group bids to dispel DVC myths
A group of Christians determined to address what they claim are the myths of The Da Vinci Code are to offer the Irish public a mental health warning on the film before it hits cinema screens.
Hope Ireland, made up of Catholics and Protestants, will run an information campaign in a bid to expose author Dan Brown’s best-seller as nothing but cunning fiction.
The group, supported by Church of Ireland and Catholic clergy and members of the secretive Opus Dei organisation, claims The Da Vinci Code does not know where the boundaries between truth and invention lie.
Norella Broderick, spokeswoman for Hope Ireland, said a number of serious errors had to be addressed.
“The Da Vinci Code film presents Christians with a challenge and a chance. The challenge is to rebut the errors in the film. The chance is to present people with the evidence for the truth of the Gospel,” she said.
“We would be totally against it because of the idea that Jesus was married and because I suppose that people fear that it questions Jesus’ divinity.”
Offering what they claim is a mental health warning on the movie, Hope Ireland is to run a series of lectures and question-and-answer sessions.
The group, which describes itself as concerned individuals, reject that the gospels were written in the fourth century with scriptures altered to promote male hierarchy.
As part of the campaign, new website www.davincicodeireland.com has been set up. Presentations will be made in Queen’s University Belfast and hotels north and south of the border while a number of secondary schools in Dublin and Wicklow have signed up for lectures.
American writer Mark Shea, who wrote The Da Vinci Deception, which answers 100 questions about Dan Brown’s book, will host a speaking tour from May 12, just days before the film opens here.
Fr Tim Bartlett of the Irish Bishops’ Conference and Paul Harman of the Opus Dei information office have already hosted talks.
Opus Dei is portrayed as doing the Vatican’s dirty work in The Da Vinci Code, but it is understood the organisation is planning to use the launch of the film as an opportunity to promote and explain the Catholic faith.
Hope Ireland, a broad-based alliance of Catholics and Protestants, was set up ahead of the release of Mel Gibson’s religious epic The Passion.
The group aimed to capitalise on the renewed interest in Christian faith generated by the film and distributed 100,000 booklets and organised evangelical initiatives on the streets, in cafés and outside cinemas.
