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Thursday, June 01, 2006
Seares: Shaking the faith
By Pachico A. Seares
News Sense
If the Catholic Church has raged about how the book and movie "The Da Vinci Code" could shake the faith of its flock, it must be worried sick too about the deluge of "anti-Church" data from many other sources.
Earlier than Dan Brown's "Da Vinci," there was "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" (1982) by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, which asked if it is possible "Christ did not die on the cross, Jesus married, and his bloodline still exists."
There was also David Yallop's "In God's Name" (1984) that probed the murder of Pope John Paul I and "exposed" internal affairs of the Vatican, including a "chain of corruption ...in a conspiracy of awesome proportions."
Fantasy
Dust-jacket prose to sell the book. But even if it delivers only half its promise, it can pound rafters of parishioners' faith.
Torrents of similar content pour, which the Church may find gross or wasteful to dispute.
Or "counter-productive," as the "Da Vinci" fire storm amply proved: a vastly enriched Brown and hordes of Catholics titillated by his fantasy.
Trust
"Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal" (2004) prods the Church to face its demons: "Don't close your eyes, look at us," a priest-abused victim asked US Cardinal Law.
And to trust the flock more, which Cebu Archdiocese did by leaving to each person the decision to watch "Da Vinci" or not.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 1, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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