c. 2006 Religion News Service
NEW YORK _ Continuing a public relations blitz in anticipation of a negative portrayal in the movie “The Da Vinci Code,” Opus Dei has released its own film depicting the Catholic group in far more flattering terms.
The 28-minute DVD documentary, “Passionately Loving the World: Ordinary Americans Living the Spirituality of St. Josemaria,” features Opus Dei members. They include an Illinois farmer, a New Jersey businessman and a Los Angeles firefighter. The vignettes focus on how the members serve God through their life’s work.
The Opus Dei film precedes the May 19 theater release of the movie starring Tom Hanks that’s based on Dan Brown’s best-selling novel. The Opus Dei documentary also coincides with the inauguration of the St. Josemaria Institute, named after the founder of Opus Dei, who stressed the importance of serving God in one’s daily life.
The DVD can be ordered online by going to http://www.stjosemaria.org and following the links. There is no charge, but the Web site does ask for a donation.
Josemaria was given the moniker “the saint of the ordinary” by Pope John Paul II.
“The core of St. Josemaria’s message is that all Christians are personally called by God to holiness, and that it can be sought and found in everyday life,” said John F. Coverdale, director of academics at the St. Josemaria Institute in Woodbridge, Ill., a Chicago suburb.
“Holiness, he tells us, is not something for a privileged few with extraordinary gifts like Mother Teresa or John Paul II. … God, St. Josemaria reminds us, wants the subway conductor, the trial lawyer and the kindergarten teacher to be just as holy as the cloistered nun.”
“The Da Vinci Code” features a self-loathing albino assassin named Silas who happens to be an Opus Dei monk. He practices self-flagellation and is a major obstacle toward hero Robert Langdon’s goal of finding the Holy Grail.
Opus Dei says that in reality, there are no monks in the organization and violence and self-flagellation are not accepted practices within the Catholic prelature. Opus Dei is made up of 85,000 members worldwide, with 98 percent of its membership lay people.
MO/PH END HERPICH
