Everything went well yesterday, despite potential disaster. The disaster being, of course, that my flight was radically delayed – at first they told us it was the incoming flight being delayed. Okay, we were still on track at that point. Then they boarded us, took us out on the runway, drove us around rather slowly, where we ended up at sort of a parking lot for planes, next to a little Continental jet.
Captain comes over and says the the Houston airport isn’t taking incoming flights because of weather. Then he comes on and says, no it wasn’t weather, there was a small fire at some facility at the airport that had affected the radar. We’d have to wait about 50 minutes for an update. Panic, phone calls to Houston, prayers, self-recriminations for not just going down the night before.
About 10:15, we got the go-ahead. More phone calls to Houston, relief, settle down with book, easily igoring the showing of Big Mama’s House 2 that they had generously begun for us while we waited.
Arrived at 1:15, where I was picked up by the quite marvelous O’Bar family, who are featured, along with several others, in a new video Opus Dei has produced. They’d been quite patient, waiting on me, amusing their children at the airport by taking them on the inter-terminal trains and such. Another fellow stayed behind to pick up the book-laden luggage, and the race was on.
I arrived at about 1:45 (the event was scheduled from 12 to 3, and had included lunch and showing of the video, so with some juggling, the re-arrangement of my talk worked out fine), walked in, was introduced, and did my talk. On the way in, I had the great pleasure of meeting Bill Cork, who was also my backup, in case I didn’t make it at all. (By the way, Mark Shea was also in Houston this weekend, but our paths didn’t cross, unfortunately).
Sold LOTS of books – in fact, I could have sold more, I think, and I have to say, the crowd impressed me for a couple of reasons.
First, I’ve been speaking on this around the country, to mostly Catholic audiences for two years now. Parishes, diocesan groups and so on. This was, without question, the most international group I’ve addressed. It was an Opus Dei sponsored event, although I’m sure not all of the 400 or so present were Opus Dei – but the group was truly diverse, and it was marvelous to see.
Secondly – lots’o kids! Which was great – it’s a whole different energy speaking to a group which includes many young children and babies, than that which you get out of a room full of solemn adults. I’ve always liked the former more.
Then…a brief interview with a local television station, and back to the airport. If only the first leg had gone as smoothly as this one – we were at least 30 minutes early getting into Chicago, somehow, with nary a bump on the way. Ah well, it all worked out.
Many thanks to the Houston folks who set this up, making arrangements to accomodate my schedule (the originally wanted it next weekend, but that’s Bye-Bye Birdie, so no deal there) and being so helpful and patient in the face of potential disaster!
So, while we’re on the subject of Opus Dei, some links:
A video interview with an OD spokesperson on DVC
For the lay reader, such musings rank up there with what if the South had won the Civil War or Hitler had triumphed over the Allies. But the theory rankles the devout, hence the drumbeat of criticism. Howard’s movie version contains re-creations of the biblical allusions so viewers understand the alternate religious history that drives the plot. There’s no disclaimer, however, though some critics have asked for one.
"It’s very controversial. What Dan Brown did with the novel, we didn’t back away from in making the movie," says Howard. "I think what a lot of people have discovered — a lot of theologians — is this is a work of fiction that presents a set of characters that are affected by these conspiracy theories and ideas. Those characters in this work of fiction act and react on that premise. It’s not theology. It’s not history. To start off with a disclaimer…." he searches for the right words. "Spy thrillers don’t start off with disclaimers."
The UK Spectator has a lengthy article on the Opus Dei response to DVC:
The brilliance of Opus Dei’s strategy is that it realises the bind that Christians in the contemporary West are in. Muslims and Jews deserve respect for their beliefs because they are minorities, while Christians — in spite of all the facts to the contrary — are seen as a hegemonic body which it is therefore legitimate to denigrate. The presupposition of The Da Vinci Code is that the Church is powerful, secretive, misogynistic and violent, acting through history like a big, bad corporation. Ironically, this prejudice has been bolstered by secularisation: the less contact people have with churches and Christians, the more inclined they are to believe damaging nonsense about them.
The novel may have its qualities as a page-turner. But only that combination of credulity and prejudice in Western culture can explain why The Da Vinci Code has become the biggest-selling book after the Bible. That is why the real victim here is the Church. How can it contest a bestselling calumny which purports to be fact — or protect its good name against a reputation-smashing Hollywood film?
The answer is given by Opus Dei. The Church’s best response is to switch public sympathy to where the facts demand it be directed. It can do this only by inviting people to come in and see the truth for themselves. If it tries to play the victim’s power game — angry, defensive, proud, placard-waving, violent — sympathy will switch back from the blonde to the beast.
That is why Mora’s strategy is paying dividends. Before The Da Vinci Code the peak of interest in its US website was 200,000 in 2002 — the year of the canonisation of the founder, Josemaría Escrivá. Last year it was 2.5 million — on top of a rash of documentaries, news slots and magazine profiles. A number of Opus Dei’s newest members say they first heard of the organisation through The Da Vinci Code.
Opus Dei’s strategy has not stopped the film, and it won’t stop millions watching it and believing it. But turning lemons into lemonade has meant, at least, that millions more will know that it is nonsense — and unfair on Christians because of Dan Brown’s claim to a basis in fact. And in some there will have been the kind of conversion which a group of American tourists on a ‘Da Vinci Code pilgrimage’ underwent last year. Seeing them gawping outside Netherhall House, Opus Dei’s student residence in north London, Valero invited them in for tea, introduced them to his numerary colleagues, and sat them down to his Powerpoint slides. At the end of the visit the tourists were incensed. ‘You guys are so nice,’ they said. ‘That Dan Brown — he’s a liar. We don’t trust nothing in that book now. You should sue the sucker.’
Tempting, but that would be to play the power game. And anyway, they’re having too much fun.
‘It’s going to be amaaaazing,’ beams Valero. ‘Then it’ll die down, and we’ll be happy to be the best-known group in the Catholic Church.’
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