Card. Rosales: "Da Vinci Code is attack against Christ to make money"
The Cardinal of Manila wrote to the clergy and community of believers in the Philippines, urging them to use this "negative attack" to "create study groups and to invite the faithful to reflection about Jesus, our only Saviour".
Manila (AsiaNews) The "Da Vinci Code" is "an attack on the divinity of Jesus Christ", launched merely "for love of money". It should be transformed into a "pastoral challenge and a moment of evangelical and catechetical grace" across the Philippines. This was the reaction of the archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, to the imminent cinema screening of the film based on the novel of Dan Brown.
In a pastoral letter addressed to the clergy and believers in the country, the cardinal described the book and film as a "an immoral attack against the divinity of Christ" that "could be compared to the heresy of Arius", and he called on the community to transform the negative situation by "creating study groups and inviting the faithful to reflection about Jesus, our only Saviour".
We publish the entire text of his message below:
Not since the time of the Presbyter Arius [256-336 AD, founder of Arianism, a heresy upholding the exclusively human nature of Jesus] has there been an attack on the Divinity of Jesus Christ "I am the Father are one." (Jn 10:30) which was as vicious and as monetarily profitable as this venture of Dan Brown and Sony Film Production.
Disguised as a "well" scripted researched novel, it now stands as an attractive presentation of a "Rorschach test" [a projective type of personality testing, based on showing patients 10 images of symmetrical ink blots that evoke shapes, memories and emotions] of Dan Brown who saw, in Leonardo Da Vinci's theme of the 'Cenacle', a cue to attack the virginity of Jesus, His purity of conduct and thought.
The actual interpretation of the classic Da Vinci's Last Supper a misnomer comes from Heydenreich, who said in Protagonist of Italian Art: "Da Vinci's conception of the theme was completely dominated by the idea of portraying the announcement of the betrayal as the central motive".
Like in anything negative, let us take this occasion to convert the cinema industry's money-motive production into a pastoral challenge, an evangelization and catechetical moment of grace. Let the parishes where questions are raised on the Divinity of Jesus and the mistaken impression that the Church was "behind hiding the truth" on Jesus initiate different discussion groups.
You may organize: discussion and study groups; youth sessions studying Jesus, reflecting on words and acts proclaiming his divinity; discussion and prayer groups, prayers and reparation for the sins of blasphemy; prayer sessions for world peace, morality and charity.
Thank you so much for your kind concern for the holiness of our faith and the assurance given to our people that Jesus is Lord God and Saviour and that we always love and follow Him.
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