Bucking the Tide

Reuters reports that a group of "prominent" UK Catholics is gearing up to boycott the DaVinci Code boycott bandwagon....

Hmm.

Dr Austen Ivereigh, the "sharp-as-nails" press secretary to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster (and onetime deputy editor of The Tablet), is speaking for the group.

His cardinal isn't on-board explicitly -- but, well, if his spokesman is, it's safe to say that the rest is tantamount....

The signatories include monks, nuns, theologians and members of the Opus Dei group, which is pilloried in the book....

"We are not calling for boycotts or protests. Our view is that it is up to people to decide if they want to see the film," Ivereigh told Reuters. But he said the film-makers should have made clear the plot is fiction, not fact....

"The danger is that by appearing threatened we give the book and the film the theological credence it doesn't have," Ivereigh said.

Yup.... As a friend in Rome said recently, "Sony's laughing all the way to the bank -- and it ain't the Vatican Bank."

Ivereigh, summarising the group's recommendations, said: "We don't think it helpful to use the kind of language this Vatican official did because it falls directly into the trap laid by Dan Brown, which is that the Church is defensive because it is engaged in a 2,000-year-old cover-up." ...

Ivereigh, who is not a member of Opus Dei, said: "This is a good chance for us to explain ourselves and our faith.

"Opus Dei has 200 e-mails a day from people wanting to join. There is no such thing as bad publicity."

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