A Christian Response to The Da Vinci Code

Nashotah House Theological Seminary, 2006

 

Lecture 10 (4 April 2006):  Dr. Christopher Wolfe, Marquette University

 

Roman Catholicism in the Cross-Hairs

 

1.   In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown engages in a frontal assault on the Christian Faith, on the Roman Catholic Church, and on the Roman Catholic religious association Opus Dei (“The Work of God”).

  1. Other lectures in this series have addressed Brown’s attacks on the Faith and the Church.
  2. This lecture is intended to give a true picture of the character and work of Opus Dei.

 

2.   In The Da Vinci Code, the murderous monk, Silas, is an Opus Dei monk, controlled by the head of the association, Bishop Aringinosa.  The bishop bribes the Vatican hierarchy in order to further the aims of the association.  Dan Brown further alleges, falsely, about Opus Dei:

  1. Opus Dei is a wealthy organization, owning a New York City office building.  It is a religious order.
  2. Members of Opus Dei engage in ritual mortification of the flesh, including the self-infliction of pain and self-mutilation.
  3. Opus Dei is a place of refuge for conservative Roman Catholics “offended” by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and by “liberal” pontiffs.  Its purpose to advance a conservative religious and social agenda in the Roman Catholic Church.
  4. The Vatican hierarchy considers Opus Dei to be a threat to church order, and will suppress the association as a personal prelature of the pontiff.
  5. Opus Dei is a male-dominated organization which ignores the spiritual well-being of women.
  6. Sinful means may be used to reach an end judged to be good (e.g., murder is justified to protect the interests of the association).
  7. Opus Dei recruits aggressively, using indoctrination tactics like those practiced by cults.
  8. Opus Dei members live in cloistered monastic houses.

 

3.   Opus Dei is in fact not a religious order or institute.  It is an association of Roman Catholics bound together in a common framework of ascetical theology (the practice of prayer and meditation).

  1. Members meet in small, intimate chapels, to pray corporately in response to ideas offered by the chapel leader (generally a priest) to facilitate prayer.
  2. Members do not live a monastic life.
  3. Members do not give vows as members of a religious order; they remain laypersons.
  4. Members include married and celibate men and women.
  5. Opus Dei is organized into prelatures, with each prelature being a grouping of persons, not a territory.  Members remain answerable to their diocesan ordinary (bishop), and no new chapel is organized without the consent of the diocesan ordinary in whose diocese a chapel is proposed.
  6. Opus Dei is a “personal prelature” of the Roman Pontiff.  This means that all prelates place themselves within the personal jurisdiction of the pope.
  7. Opus Dei is considered to be very conservative in theology and practice within the Roman Catholic Church, but is not a proscribed organization.

 

4.   Opus Dei ascetical practices include:

  1. Prayer:  praying the Rosary; the Angelus.  The ongoing examination of conscience, with weekly sacramental confession.
    1. The focus in prayer remains on love of God, and can include mental prayer.  Life is lived as a spiritual offering to God.
  2. Work:  Whatever the occupation or vocation of a member may be, it is sanctified as an offering to God, as a part of His Creation.  The temporary and the ordinary are to be sanctified by always being undertaken to glorify God.
  3. Apostalate:  All Christians have the right and duty to help others to grow closer to God.
    1. Work can only be offered to God which is done “humanly.”  Work is sanctified when it is undertaken to serve God and to serve others.
    2. Any human interaction that promotes faith in God is true friendship.
  4. Prayer, Work and Apostolate are unified in a call to holiness through collective formation.  Members:
    1. Meet in classes for instruction in the faith.
    2. Are accountable for spiritual guidance through a Confessor.
    3. Are accountable to each other, and are to correct each other fraternally, raising any dispute with a superior as necessary.
  5. Membership in Opus Dei constitutes a specific, concrete form of Christian vocation, which allows the member to work with others to promote the faith.
  6. Opus Dei exists to offer formation to others; it is not secretive.
  7. Members do not engage in ritual corporal mortification.  However, mortification of the flesh itself may be a valid spiritual practice, provided its aim to place God first:  a prime example of mortification is fasting.