‘Da Vinci’ undermines faith, survey claims

“The Da Vinci Code” has undermined faith in the Roman Catholic Church and badly damaged its credibility, a survey of British readers revealed Tuesday as tensions over — and hype for — the forthcoming film reached a fever pitch.

As its stars off headed to walk the red carpet at Cannes, where the film was set to debut Wednesday before a worldwide release Friday, at least two countries limited the film's release.

The British survey, released by a group of prominent Catholics, revealed that readers of Dan Brown's blockbuster novel are twice as likely to believe Jesus Christ fathered children and four times as likely to think the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei is a murderous sect.

“An alarming number of people take its spurious claims very seriously indeed,” said Austin Ivereigh, press secretary to Britain’s top Catholic prelate Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. “Our poll shows that for many, many people “The Da Vinci Code” is not just entertainment.”

He heads a prominent collection of English Roman Catholic monks, theologians, nuns and members of Opus Dei, who commissioned the survey from pollster Opinion Research Business (ORB) and have sought to promote Catholic beliefs amid the film’s release.

ORB interviewed more than 1,000 adults last weekend, finding that 60 percent believed Jesus had children by Mary Magdalene — a possibility raised by the book — compared with just 30 percent of those who had not read the book.

The group, which stopped short of following the Vatican line of calling on Catholics to boycott the film, accused Brown of dishonest marketing based on peddling fiction as fact.

Ivereigh complained that Brown and film studio Sony Pictures “have encouraged people to take it seriously while hiding behind the claim that it is fiction.

“Our poll shows they should take responsibility for their dishonesty and issue a health warning.”

The novel, which has sold over 40 million copies, also depicts Opus Dei as a ruthless Machiavellian organization whose members resort to murder to keep the Church’s secrets.

In the survey, readers were asked if Opus Dei had ever carried out a murder. Seventeen percent of readers believe it had, compared with just four percent of non-readers.

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Opus Dei spokesman Jack Valero said he was astonished.

“Since we were founded in 1928, Opus Dei has promoted the highest moral standards at work, spreading a message of Christian love and understanding,” he said.

“Yet the Da Vinci Code has persuaded hundreds of thousands of people that we have blood on our hands.”

Release halted in India
Though controversy has largely emanated from Europe and the United States, India took perhaps the strongest move against the film Tuesday, temporarily halting its release until it could be screened for Catholic groups. The move came in response to sporadic protests by some Christian and Muslim groups.

SEBASTIAN D'SOUZA / AFP/Getty Images Indian Catholic activist Joseph Dias offers prayers at a protest rally Tuesday in Mumbai. Dias has begun a hunger strike, vowing to "fast unto death" unless "The Da Vinci Code" was banned in India after film censors cleared it for opening without cuts.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said he had received more than 200 complaints. The release “may be delayed by a day or two,” he said.

“We are a secular country. On any sensitive issue, we should take action after we examine every aspect,” Dasmunshi told reporters. “We have to be careful.”

The national censor in the largely Catholic Philippines, meantime, gave the film an “adults only” certificate on Tuesday, banning under-18s from viewing it. Consoliza Laguardia told reporters the film, based on the best-selling novel of the same title, required “mature discernment” because of a plot that involves Jesus Christ having a child with Mary Magdalene.

Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chairwoman Marissa Laguardia also cited scenes of “self-flagellation involving clerical assassination, violent images and a fleeting sexual ritual,” but she said the film did not directly attack the Catholic Church and did not merit an X-rating or any cuts.

Because SM cinemas, the largest chain of movie theatres in the Philippines, does not show R-18 films, the move will largely push “The Da Vinci Code” out of Philippine theaters. But it will hardly stop eager patrons from watching.

Laguardia said the movie would be a “test of faith” for many people in the Philippines.

“But it has to be shown,” she said. “Thirty-six countries have already reviewed this film and they have not banned it. So are we just out of the stone age?”

Manila’s hawkers have already started flogging a documentary on “The Da Vinci Code” as the real movie, and pirated copies of the feature film are expected to hit the streets soon.

In Thailand, a coalition demanded that government censors cut the film’s final 15 minutes.

“We asked that they cut out the conclusion of the movie that Jesus still has heirs alive today,” said a spokesman for the groups, Manoch Jangmook of the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand.

A South Korean court rejected a request from a Christian group for an injunction blocking the screening of the movie, saying the group’s reasons lacked merit.

“As it is clear that the novel and movie are all fiction ... there is no probability that the movie can make viewers mistakenly believe the contents of the movie are facts,” chief judge Song Jin-hyun of the Seoul Central District Court said.

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