Cult of Dan Brown

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Opus Dei is Unhappy w/ DVC Portrayal

April 10, 2006, 12:50AM

Opus Dei tries to break Code’s spell on American public’s imagination

Catholic group fights image given by book and movie

By TARA DOOLEY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Many readers of Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code first learned about the Catholic organization Opus Dei by way of a murderous albino monk with a bloody dedication to self-mutilation.

With Ron Howard’s movie version set to hit American multiplexes May 19, the tiny international organization of devout Catholics has gone into public-relations high gear with what has become its mantra of the moment: There are no monks in Opus Dei, not even albino monks.

“In the past, for all the talking we did, nobody listened,” said the Rev. Michael Barrett, a priest of Opus Dei and director of Holy Cross Chapel in downtown Houston “ ... The Da Vinci Code all of a sudden made us famous, not in a great way. But it meant that we had to start talking and now people listened.”

Barrett is one of a corps dispatched onto television and radio airwaves as Opus Dei tests the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

After failing to persuade Sony Pictures to remove Opus Dei from the movie, the organization — depicted as one known for its secrecy and power — set out to handle growing attention by using the Internet, books and pamphlets.

Opus Dei members include Joaquin Navarro-Valls, spokesman for Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and Robert P. Hanssen, the FBI agent who pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union in 2001.

“Inside the church and also in secular politics, I would say their influence gets radically exaggerated in the retelling,” said John L. Allen, Jr., author of Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church.

Part of the organization’s mystique stems from its role in Catholicism’s ideological wars after the Second Vatican Council, Allen said. It has been placed squarely in the church’s conservative tradition and enjoyed the attention of Pope John Paul II.

“Dan Brown didn’t create the Opus Dei myth,” Allen said. “He just took it mass market.”

One of Opus Dei’s main publicity tools is its revamped Web site, http://www.opusdei.org. In the past year, it had more than 1 million unique visitors, said Brian Finnerty, United States media relations director for Opus Dei.

In addition, an Opus Dei priest in Rome is blogging on the Da Vinci Code connection on http://www.davincicodeopusdei.com. And the stream of visitors to the U.S. headquarters in New York City — erroneously dubbed the world headquarters in Brown’s novel — are greeted with pamphlets on Jesus, the Catholic church and Opus Dei, Finnerty said.

Opus Dei members have also worked with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on a Web site to refute the book’s claims about the divinity and marriage of Jesus, http://www.jesusdecoded.com.

Barrett has gone head to head with Chris Matthews on TV’s Hardball and Matt Lauer on Today. He has taped interviews for upcoming programs on CNN and CBS.

The thoughtful 53-year-old priest with graying hair, soft blue eyes and a hint of the Bronx in his speech is also a contrast to actor Paul Bettany, who plays the monk who leaves a bloody trail in the movie.

Barrett became involved in Opus Dei in 1971 as an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York City. He worked with the group first during a career in the oil industry, as a stock broker and then as a priest. He worked in the group’s Rome office and was its vicar of Texas for 11 years before taking over duties as director of Holy Cross Chapel, owned by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston but run by Opus Dei.

Despite its recent supersized exposure, Opus Dei is relatively small — 87,116 members from the world’s estimated 1 billion Catholics, Finnerty said. In the United States, Opus Dei has about 3,000 members and in the Houston area, about 130. It has about 1,900 priests throughout the world.

The organization was founded in 1928 by Josemaria Escriva, a Spanish priest, to inspire lay people to approach life with holiness and a commitment to God.

“We didn’t want to just show up (at Mass) on Sundays and forget our faith the rest of the the week,” said Melanie Hebert, speaking of herself and husband, Jason.

The Heberts, both 26, are Opus Dei supernumeraries, married couples who commit to a schedule of daily prayer, spiritual reading, rosary recitation and Mass. They also go to confession weekly and participate in monthly and annual retreats.

Supernumeraries make up about 70 percent of Opus Dei’s membership. The organization also has numeraries, celibate single men and women who often live in houses owned by Opus Dei but hold secular jobs.

It is these members who participate in corporal mortification, a more controversial practice of Opus Dei. They spend about two hours a day wearing a cilice, a metal mesh band. Once a week, they hit themselves with a discipline, a whip of 18-inch fabric, cord-like strings with knots, while reciting a short prayer, Barrett said.

Critics question Opus Dei’s recruiting practices and claim it fosters a cult-like atmosphere among its celibate members.

Dianne DiNicola founded Opus Dei Awareness Network, a grass-roots organization based in Massachusetts to help former Opus Dei members, after her daughter’s experience as a celibate member of Opus Dei while a college student in Boston.

While in Opus Dei, her daughter’s personality changed and she became estranged from the family, DiNicola said. Eventually, DiNicola’s daughter left Opus Dei with the help of a professional counselor hired by her family, she said.

This renewed spotlight can be uncomfortable, said Opus Dei member Billy Omanga, a 34-year-old network administrator with a wife and daughter. As Omanga sees it, the main problem with The Da Vinci Code is how it portrays Christianity and the Catholic Church.

“This is not a big moment (for Opus Dei),” he said. “It is a moment that has come and we will make the best of it.”

Posted by Admin on 04/09 at 08:55 PM
News • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink