CULTURE & POLITICS, ODDS & ENDS

From Catherine Smibert at ZENIT-
www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=83862
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An old debate returned in all its glory to Rome last week.

Opening the discussion on the world and its creation came an article in L'Osservatore Romano, stating that Catholics should be wary of thinking that "intelligent design" belongs to science.

These comments of Father Fiorenzo Faccini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, followed closely those of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn in a column last July in the New York Times.

Such commentaries led to a presentation on "Intelligent Design, Evolution and the Church," hosted by the Vatican Forum, a Rome-based lecture and discussion group of Vatican journalists.

To start the event, moderator Andrea Kirk Assaf quoted scholar Richard Weaver: "Ideas have consequences and perhaps no idea has more profound consequences for the way we view ourselves, one another and our purpose on earth than that of evolution and other theories of the origin on human life."

Indeed, the main speakers for the occasion seemed to agree with that assessment.

Mark Ryland, vice president of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank, and Legionary Father Rafael Pascual, director of the master's program in Science and
Faith at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, are two who have intensely studied the questions surrounding creation, science and the Church.

The pair set out to present that the Church is not against Darwin, but rather Darwinism; not against evolution but rather evolutionism.

"No one really doubts that something like evolution happened in some sense," Ryland told me after his presentation. "But primarily the question is the mechanism -- what caused the evolutionary changes that science observes?"

Ryland insists that the core issue is not that there are problems with evolution theory. Rather, for him the issue is: "Can the Darwinian mechanism explain this complexity that we see in the biological world?"

He notes that "a lot of scientists believe the answer is no, while a lot of philosophers think that there are other, better ways of understanding nature as well. So these issues have to be discussed in a civil way."

While Father Pascual gave a concise treatise of the Church's teaching on evolution, Ryland went beyond with a spectacular PowerPoint presentation to give a holistic overview of the controversy with a more historical and philosophical approach.

Looking at the history of science, Ryland was able to show how the transition from the old science of Aristotle or St. Thomas to the new science of Newton and Boyle helps us see certain features emerge which begin to explain the controversy which we are having today about teleology: the study of purpose and design in nature.

"Father Faccini set up the problem by saying, 'The way we do modern science is that we don't deal with issues of teleology or purpose, and there's a good argument for that,'" observed Ryland.

"However, the problem is the way Darwin's theory is taught as a theory in which purpose is denied," he said.

"To say that you can deny purpose, and that's scientific, but affirm it and that's unscientific, is, of course, ludicrous," Ryland added. "So, as Catholics, we have to decide on the boundaries of science and the boundaries of philosophy."

PAPAL EXHIBIT NOW IN MILWAUKEE

This past December, I went to this exhibit when it was on display in San Antonio, Texas. It is now in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, its final stop in the U.S. My daughter and my youngest son, both in their 30s, accompanied me. We spent three hours moving relatively quickly through the exhibit and still did not view every object. However, the exhibit was beautiful and very moving for all three of us. Most of it was very low-key but powerful. In fact, it was tempting to overlook ancient letters hung inconspicuously on the walls and move on to the more flashy objects like bejeweled chalices or the glittering, multi-colored robe that JPII wore to open the great door at the start of the year, 2000. However, the humble looking letters often told of the life and death drama of missionaries in hostile or uncivilized locations.

The exhibit was very popular in San Antonio. I was amazed at the quiet reverence of the crowd, including many school children, and the emotion many people were obviously feeling at some of the exhibits, especially the bronze replica of JPII's hand and the makeshift chalice used by the inmates at Auschwitz. This is definitely an exhibit worth seeing if you have the opportunity. If anybody plans to go and wants some helpful hints, let me know.
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By JACKIE LOOHAUIS
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Feb. 2, 2006

So you think you already know everything about what you'll see at the "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes" exhibit opening Saturday at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

If you believe that, get ready for a revelation - a lot of them. And they are eye-poppers.

Anyone expecting merely a showcase for the gold, diamonds and other earthly riches of the Vatican museums is in for a pleasant jolt. That's because church officials designed this show as a revealing history of the entire papacy, a mission devised by Pope John Paul II himself.

"John Paul wanted this exhibit to be a lifting of the veil of mystery around the pope," said Jeffrey Wyatt, senior vice president of exhibitions for Live Nation, which staged the show's tour. Milwaukee is its only Midwest stop.

The late pope asked officials to retell the 2,000-year development of the papacy and its effect on the world.

So "Vatican" - the largest traveling exhibit ever staged at the Milwaukee Public Museum - ia a treasure of surprises for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

"This is one of the largest collections of Vatican historic objects ever to tour, and most of these have never been seen before in public anywhere," said exhibit curator Carter Lupton. "Not all of these are museum objects. And some were used by the new pope."

One surprise is the way exhibit planners kept current on their task of tracing the entire papacy.

They immediately added newsworthy items from the 2005 election of Pope Benedict XVI, including the device that produced the white smoke heralding Benedict's selection.

In "Vatican," even expected pieces of history offer unexpected twists.

Designers re-created a section of "The Street of Tombs" from the first century A.D. so visitors find themselves walking among the catacombs of ancient Rome. Turn the corner and a simple crypt looms up. Is it the tomb of St. Peter himself?

Other reproductions materialize in unusual settings.

Any exhibit about the Vatican has to include Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings. But in "Vatican," visitors stand not on the floor, but in a fantasy, on "scaffolding" set six feet below the ceiling paintings. The paintings appear to be in the process of their 16th-century creation, a "you-are-there" moment complete with dripped paint on the scaffold planks.

"It's as though Michelangelo just left for a plate of pasta," Wyatt said.

So many other parts of the exhibit are so jaw-droppingly beautiful that it's hard to take everything in. But there are several particularly amazing power-packers, "Ten Revelations of the Vatican Exhibit":

1. The Mandylion of Edessa. The Mandylion ranks with The Shroud of Turin and The Veil of Veronica as one of the holiest Christian relics, Wyatt said. It is not on public display at the Vatican, and its up-close exhibition here is a marvel.

Church tradition holds that this piece of linen, now set in a silver frame flanked by two sculpted angels, shows the true face of Christ. Just how that image came to be on the linen is unknown. But according to Monsignor Roberto Zagnoli, the curator of the Vatican Museums who travels with the exhibit: "Tradition says the image was created miraculously."

One explanation holds that it is the physical impression made by the face of Christ on the cloth.

However the original image came to be, Zagnoli noted that it has been touched up with paint over the centuries. What exhibit visitors will see is a dark-brown face gazing evocatively from a brown background.

The Mandylion has emerged as one of the most emotionally powerful items in the exhibit. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee co-sponsored "Vatican," and Archbishop Timothy Dolan said of the Mandylion: "Traditionally housed in the Pope's private chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the venerable legend is that it is the oldest known representation of Jesus Christ. No wonder that, at the other North American stops of the exhibition, people have paused at the Mandylion for prayerful reflection."

2. Map of "A Southern Land." At first glance an old map showing what looks like two halves of a football may not seem like much of a revelation.

But actually, this is the first geographical map drawn of Australia. It was created in 1676 by Father Vittorio Ricci, who was serving in the Philippines at the time. His map would be the basis of the Church's early plans to spread the faith to the continent.

3. The Auschwitz Chalice. This piece has an "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" grail quality to it: very plain, very simple, but of great worth.

That worth comes from its origins in the Auschwitz death camp. During World War II, camp inmates fashioned the main parts of the goblet out of an ordinary drinking glass and the bottom of a metal canister. Imprisoned priests used the chalice, risking their lives to celebrate Mass under the noses of the German guards.

"This chalice carries more emotional weight than some of the objects studded with precious stones. You see so many people moved to tears by it," Wyatt said.

4. The Cope with Stole of Urban VIII. The "Vatican" exhibit may be a history of the popes, but this 17th-century work has more than liturgical meaning.

Urban, who reigned from 1623 to 1644, commissioned the cope and stole. They were created by some of the greatest fabric artisans in Europe who wove and embroidered the silk, silver leaf and gold thread. This pontiff was known for his patronage of the arts, and the vestments reveal his love of beauty.

This particular piece also reveals just what makes "Vatican" such a catch for Milwaukee. In Rome, these pieces of cloth would be stored away or displayed behind glass. Here, the cope is so close to visitors that "you can see every thread," Wyatt said. "It shows there is something for everyone in this exhibit."

5. The Missal Stand of Christopher Columbus. This portable stand for the book of prayers used in the Catholic Mass is one of the rare items still existing with links to a Columbus voyage.

The stand traveled with Columbus to the Americas in 1493. Carved in the shape of a shell out of brown wood, it's inlaid (true to its ocean theme) with thin strips of fish spine and tortoise shell. It reveals just how much Columbus and his men depended on the power of prayer.

6. The Napoleonic Papal Tiara of Pope Pius VII. Visitors to the exhibit will learn that this 1805 piece has another name: "The Tiara of Offense."

That's because this heavy crown proved to be good news/bad news for Pius. Napoleon's troops had overrun the Papal States, and the little general gave the tiara as a "goodwill" gift to Pius to make up for the damage.

Or maybe not so much. In fact, Napoleon made sure that the glittering gold tiara was made too small to fit the pope's head. Pius never got to wear it.

The tiara's impact is felt even today. Most of the glittering bits in the piece are actually cut glass because Pope Benedict XV had the original precious stones sold to help World War I veterans. Wyatt recalls that one of the reasons the current pope chose his papal name was that he "liked the good works Benedict XV had done." Those works included the donation of the jewels in this crown.

7. Election urns. Those items that are the newest tell one of the best stories: They witnessed the elevation of a cardinal to pope. These two urns were used for the only time to elect Pope Benedict XVI last year. The voting cardinals wrote out their ballots, set them on a small bronze plate and then slipped them into the urn adorned with sheep. The urn topped with a shepherd held the ballots after they had been counted. Sculptor Cecco Bonanotte, who also created the bronze cast of Pope John Paul II's hand, designed the pieces.

8. Habakkuk and the Angel. This piece from about 1655 gives art lovers a rare look into the mind of a great sculptor.

The swirling work is a terracotta model of a statue Gian Bernini never actually crafted, depicting the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. But the revelation comes from the insights it provides into Bernini's techniques in movement and imagination.

9. The Thanka. A 1978 gift to Pope John Paul II from the present Dalai Lama, this devotional cloth lends an extraordinary ecumenical note to the exhibit.

Embroidered in gold and silver threads on red silk and encrusted with pearls, the Thanka depicts "one of the many postures of the Buddha, one of 'infinite light,' " Zagnoli said. Amazingly intricate, the huge tapestry shows what Zagnoli calls "the many faces of religion."

10. The Pastoral Staff of Pope John Paul II. Wyatt labels this "the single object most associated with John Paul's ministry" for good reason. Photos of John Paul resting against this 6-foot staff appeared throughout his papacy.

The staff in this exhibit reveals a poignant secret. This is the heavy, silver original work. In later years, the ailing pontiff found the staff too weighty to carry, and it was replaced by an aluminum reproduction.

Good piece to read, and recall the next time (or the first, for that matter) you are at St. Peter's Basilica. It has a lot of background information, but I think the whole premise for the article is odd, because if one considers that the Latin and Italian terms for Peter's Chair are cathedra and cattedra, respectively, there should be no question that the term refers to a teaching seat, not a throne !
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From www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0600651.htm

Chair of St. Peter:
Bishop's teaching seat, not king's throne
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The 110 wax candles used once a year to light up a sculpture behind the main altar in St. Peter's Basilica have led some people to think the Vatican really has a feast day for a chair.

Not that it's just any chair, but the Feb. 22 feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle has much more to do with the symbolism of a chair than with the chair itself.

The distinction, however, is lost on most tourists, who often are told that Gian Lorenzo Bernini's famous sculpture in the apse of St. Peter's Basilica hides the remains of a chair in which St. Peter himself sat.

An official guide to the basilica, edited by Daniele Pergolizzi of the office that oversees the care of the church, said the Vatican hired two archeologists to examine the chair in 1867, the last time it was displayed publicly. The lay archeologist determined that the acacia frame of the chair could date back to the time of St. Peter, but the oak, iron and ivory date to the ninth century. However, the Jesuit archeologist said the entire chair was from the ninth century.

The debate was not settled until Pope Paul VI set up a new commission in 1967 to study the chair. The commission members agreed with the Jesuit.

But the feast, Pergolizzi said, "has nothing to do with that chair."

"The institution of the feast clearly was not because Peter sat on that chair; rather the chair is a symbol of the fact that he sat here in Rome as bishop," said Father Diego Ravelli, an official in the Vatican almoner's office who is writing his thesis on the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

Father Ravelli said that already in 354 the feast was listed in the "Chronographia Romana," a calendar of civic and religious observances.

Adapted from an ancient Roman memorial service honoring the head of an important family or clan, he said, for centuries the feast celebrated "the beginning of the episcopacy of St. Peter."

However, he said, as the temporal power of the pope grew and as the church suffered divisions, "the focus slowly transferred to the primacy, the authority of Peter" and, therefore, of the pope as his successor.

Father Ravelli said primacy and authority are naturally part of the idea of celebrating a chair, if the term is thought of like a chair at a university, held by a particularly intelligent and wise professor. But he said his research showed that the primary focus of the feast for centuries was on the role of St. Peter and his successors as the servants of the unity of the entire church.

The pope's role as servant is emphasized both in Bernini's sculpture and in prayers for the feast day liturgy written after the Second Vatican Council, Father Ravelli said.

While the Gospel reading for the Mass has remained the story of Jesus giving the "keys of the kingdom of heaven" to St. Peter, he said, the Vatican II prayers "focus on service, especially on serving the communion of the whole church."

"The tone does not underline primacy, which remains part of it, but service," he said.

Bernini's sculpture also contains both elements and can be interpreted according to one's point of view, he said.

The fact that it is a Baroque masterpiece exalting the chair on bronze clouds right below the Holy Spirit window can been seen as an expression of the royal, triumphant power of the papacy.

In that case, Father Ravelli said, the chair is obviously a throne.

But while Bernini depicted Jesus handing the keys to Peter on one side of the chair, the presentation is balanced by the scene of the washing of the feet on the other side.

The central scene, decorating the backrest, shows Jesus telling Peter that if he loves the Lord he will feed his sheep.

Bernini's placement of two saintly theologians from the East and two from the West at the feet of the chair also is open to interpretation focusing either on power or on service, Father Ravelli said.

While some would see the theologians in submission under the chair, he said, "the chair is not a weight on them, nor are they holding it up. They are drawn to it, gathered around it."

To Father Ravelli, the chair is a symbol that the bishop of Rome's key act of serving the church is service through teaching.

"The pope has an obligation to teach," he said. "Even for nonbelievers he is a point of reference on moral questions."

The 110 candles do not light up a king's throne, Father Ravelli said, but a teacher's chair.

Here's a little article from Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, with little-known facts of interest about the little Church of St. Anne where the Pope said Mass last Sunday. In translation -
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The church for expectant mothers
By Laura Badaracchi

It has become a tradition, an establihsed devotion. The devout arrive in pilgrimage from all Rome and even from other cities of Italy to the Church of Saint Anne in the Vatican, to ask that the mother of Mary protect their pregnancy. They recite a prayer specially composed for expectant mothers, and after receiving the blesing of the priest, they bring home a candle that has been blessed, which they will light when their labor pains begin.

“Many are extremely moved when they come here, expecially those who are having their first child. They come here following the example of their own mothers, and then after they give birth, they come back with the children, to thank God and the grandmother of Jesus,” says the Augustinian priest Gioele Schiavella.

For 14-1/2 years, he has been parish priest of St. Anne, an “atypical” parish (the only one inside Vatican state, it belongs to the Vatican Vicariate and not the diocese of Rome) and one which Benedict XVI visited on the 28th annual celebration of the Day for Life.

“We feel a bit like the Pope’s neighbors, because we often see him in the distance as well as from much nearer during liturgical celebrations,” says Father Gioele. “He came here often when he was a cardinal. He is a person with a noble spirit, loving and humble. We have great admiration for him, and we feel gret joy that he is coming to see us.”

He calls his church “the church of welcome” because “it is the only place in the Vatican which you can enter without a ticket and without permission from the Swiss Guard.”

Some 600 persons were expected to attend the Pope’s Mass. Among them 40 children who are being prepared for Communion and Confirmation (some of them are children of Swiss Guards), a choir of 30, some of whose members live in the city periphery, women of Catholic Action, and volunteers for Caritas who work in hospitals and in a legal center for handicapped and old persons who get free legal counsel.

The Caritas branch of St. Anne also collects clothing, food and medicines for needy people in Byelorussia and the Ukraine, where it has also made many adoptions by long distance possible.

On Sunday afternoons, Father Esteban, one of the priests, says Mass in English for his fellow Filipinos in Rome.

The Church of St. Anne also represents a center for many religious who arrive in Rome from around trhe world. Language courses have been organized in order to teach Italian to newcomers who come to spend some time in Rome. Father Gioele considers the great number of volunteers working at St. Anne as “something of a miracle for this parish.”

On Sundays, the church is attended mostly by foreigners. And every year, about a hundred foreign couples choose to get married in St. Anne’s.

Otherwise, the liturgical and sacramental life of thie parish follow the usual parochial rhythm. With a singular feature: the help of many monsignors who work in the Vatican and offer their services to hear confessions and to say Mass.

A new way out of Vatican City

The walled city's 5th gate to open on Friday
(ANSA) - Vatican City, February 7 - A new entrance with bronze doors has been built in the huge walls that have surrounded the Vatican City for centuries, isolating it from the hubbub of central Rome .

The gateway, which is on the north side of the Vatican, near the museums, will provide a fifth way in and out of the world's smallest state. The doors will swing open on Friday .

Vatican authorities ordered a fresh breach to be made in the walls in order to lessen the volume of traffic using one of the other gates, Porta Sant'Anna .

The older gate, manned by the colourfully dressed Swiss Guards, often becomes congested at the start and end of the working day as the underground carpark just inside the walls fills up or empties .

The new gate is actually an old one which was built in 1929 and then closed up again soon after .

Officials said the recently completed entrance will also help matters during papal ceremonies when crowds and security arrangements often make the two main gates difficult to use .

The sculpted bronze doors bear the Vatican coat of arms and the insignia of the current pope, Benedict XVI. Above the entrance, carved into the stone, is the Latin inscription: Benedictus XVI Pont.Max. Anno Domini MMV Pont.1, meaning that the gate was built under Benedict, in the first year of his pontificate .

LAURA BUSH TO MEET PAPA

First Lady to make Rome stopover

Laura Bush to see pope, pay courtesy call on Berlusconi
(ANSA) - Rome, February 7


- First Lady Laura Bush is expected to pay a courtesy call on Premier Silvio Berlusconi when she stops in the Italian capital on her way to Turin for the opening of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games .

Well-informed sources said they expected the wife of President George W. Bush to be Berlusconi's luncheon guest at his Rome residence on Thursday before she heads north .

At present, the First Lady's only confirmed appointments here include a private audience in the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI and a meeting with members of the Italian branch of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation .

The Dallas-based organisation is the leading private institution active in the fight against breast cancer in the United States .

Laura Bush is set to arrive in Rome with her daughter Barbara on Wednesday evening to lead the American delegation, which includes several former Olympic champions, to the opening of Torino 2006 on Friday, February 10 .

While in northern Italy, the First Lady and the American delegation will pay a visit to the US air base in Aviano, near the northeast city of Pordenone, to meet with military personnel stationed there .

So far at least 15 heads of state have promised to attend Friday's opening ceremony and Laura Bush will be joined by the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Cherie Blair, who is heading her country's delegation .

On Thursday evening, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi will welcome dignitaries attending the inauguration at the former royal palace in Turin for a gala dinner which will see the Olympic Flame arrive carried by Prince Albert II of Monaco .

The next morning, Laura Bush will host a luncheon for select guests at the Villa Matilde resort hotel, where she is staying, before the inauguration ceremonies .

No date has been given for Laura Bush's departure from Turin, but while she is there she will be able to attend the opening night of the opera La Boheme at Teatro Reggio as well as a concert by Andrea Bocelli .

The games themselves begin on Saturday, February 11 and end on the 26th .

[Modificato da benefan 08/02/2006 3.12]

Some encouraging news in this round-up by Associated Press on the violent reactions across the Muslim world to cartoons published in the West that are deemed offensive to Islam.
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By AMIR SHAH
Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan

Police shot four protesters to death Wednesday to stop hundreds from marching on a southern U.S. military base, as Islamic organizations called for an end to deadly rioting across the Muslim world over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This must stop," said senior cleric Mohammed Usman, a member of the Ulama Council _ Afghanistan's top Islamic organization. "We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the name of Islam."

Other members of the council went on radio and television Wednesday to appeal for calm. It followed a statement released Tuesday by the United Nations, European Union and the world's largest Islamic group urging an end to violence.

"Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam," said the statement released by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the EU chief Javier Solana.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman said the United States and other countries are examining whether extremist groups may be inciting protesters to riot around the world because of the cartoons that have been printed in numerous European papers.

"The United States and other countries are providing assistance in any manner that they can ... to see if this is something larger than just a small demonstration," Col. James Yonts told reporters when asked whether al-Qaida and the Taliban may have been involved in days of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan.

The Afghan protests have involved armed men and have been directed at foreign and Afghan government targets _ fueling the suspicions there's more behind the unrest than religious sensitivities. But Yonts stressed they had no evidence to support suggestions that al-Qaida or Taliban are linked to the riots in Afghanistan.

The rest of the story is at
www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/08/D8FL0TGO1.html

ZENIT'S resident art-and-culture commentator in Rome reacts to the Pope's citation of Dante when he personally introduced his first encyclical to a Cor Unum symposium two days before it was published.
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"The Divine Comedy" Resonates
by Elizabeth Lev

ROME, FEB. 9, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's new encyclical on love came as a surprise to most everyone. Some wags commented on the paradox of the "German Shepherd" exclaiming that God is Love. Others are amazed that the erstwhile watchdog of Church doctrine would choose to dedicate so much ink to social teachings.

My surprise had nothing to do with this. I was floored when the Holy Father said he was inspired by Dante.

During an audience with members of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" on Jan. 23, Benedict XVI introduced the new encyclical saying that the 14th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri had been instrumental in his meditation on the true meaning of love.

Why would this avant-garde theologian, eyes firmly fixed on the contemporary Church and its modern maladies, draw from 700-year-old poetry to describe love? Could he be teaching us that the great works of Christian art -- whether literary, musical or visual -- have lessons and messages pertinent to us today? What sweet music to the ears of an art historian.

But Benedict's mention of "The Divine Comedy" resounded not only in my professional life but in my personal story as well, since this magnificent poem changed the course of my life.

I first moved to Italy in 1989, drawn to its art and history but indifferent to the 2,000-year-old presence of Christianity. I had left my own Catholic faith far behind, and to me the many churches of Italy seemed merely dusty places housing good paintings.

Six years and three unbaptized children later, I began graduate work at the University of Bologna with a yearlong course on "The Divine Comedy." Reading the Italian poetry, I was increasingly captivated by the richness of language and fascinated by the wealth of allegory.

And yet I did not really understand this tale of conversion. Following Virgil and Dante into the circles of hell, I admired the style but refused to see the content.

Dante's vivid descriptions and musical rhyme, however, began to seep through all my filters. I began to dream of the laments in limbo, as in the Canto IV of the "Inferno," "sighs that trembled the timeless air: they emanated from the shadowy sadness." These were people who had not sinned, but were denied "Baptism, portal to the faith."

These words weighed on me so much that I had my children baptized. At the time they were 6, 5 and with my little boy approaching his 1st birthday. My whole family rejoiced that they were finally received into the Church. Less than one month later, my youngest son died in an accident.

Only one thing gave me comfort. My son was in heaven. I could explain to his sisters that their brother was with the angels. Dante had saved my son's eternal life.

I wish I could tell you that I turned my life around the very next day. But like Dante's journey, which must cover a lot of ground, I too had -- and have -- a long road ahead. I had made it out of the inferno, and imagined my life would be spent circling around the high mount of purgatory.

In the beginning of the third book, "Paradise," Dante warns that this book is for the few, that many should not read on as they will get lost along the way. I have always stopped during the complex visions of Paradise, feeling unfit to continue. Benedict XVI's encyclical offered me a new challenge. Perhaps through the teachings of the Holy Father and the art of Dante, even I can achieve a better vision of God as love.

Teresa-B., this was a very interesting piece. I wonder how many people will turn to Dante-reading after Papa's encyclical.

Dear Mag6nideum - As I have "unloaded" on you in private quite gratuitously on the subject of Dante and the Divina Commedia, about which I feel very passionate, I can only hope Papa's citation of Dante will spark a Dante revival...But in whatever language the aspiring Dantean will choose to read the Divina Commedia in, be sure to get an excellent translation (if it's not the original Italian) and one that is well-annotated...Each of those perfect tercets says volumes...

Teresa-B, I wish I could read and study Dante with YOUR help and guidance!! Your enthusiasm for Dante has inspired me nearly as much as Ratzi's encyclical!

ABOUT THE DISASTROUS CARTOONS
From the Los Angeles Times Online

By Tim Rutten:
Regarding Media

Let's be honest about cartoons

THE editor of the Los Angeles Times does not think you need to see any of the cartoons that have triggered deadly riots across the Muslim world.

Earlier this week, I proposed illustrating this column with examples of the caricatures first published last fall in a Danish newspaper. If readers are to form rational opinions about both the ferocity of Islamic reaction and the American news media's response to it, I thought, surely at least a glance at one or two of these mild cartoons is required. I suggested that the cartoons run inside the Calendar section with a notice in this space concerning their location. That way, those who wanted to see them could, while those who might be offended simply could avoid that page.

I fully expected the proposal to be rejected, and it was — quickly and in writing, though the note also expressed the hope that the column would be as forceful and candid as possible.

This paper has ample company. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and USA Today all have declined to run the cartoons because many Muslims find them offensive. The people who run Associated Press, NBC, CBS, CNN and National Public Radio's website agree. So far, the only U.S. news organizations to provide a look at what this homicidal fuss is about are the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Austin American-Statesman, the Fox cable network and ABC.

Among those who decline to show the caricatures, only one, the Boston Phoenix, has been forthright enough to admit that its editors made the decision "out of fear of retaliation from the international brotherhood of radical and bloodthirsty Islamists who seek to impose their will on those who do not believe as they do. This is, frankly, our primary reason for not publishing any of the images in question. Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and as deeply as we believe in the principles of free speech and a free press, we could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy."

There is something wonderfully clarifying about honesty.

Meanwhile, ironies that would be laughable were the situation not so dire have mounted by the day. For one thing, reporting in this paper, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal has made it clear that what's at work here is not the Muslim street's spontaneous revulsion against sacrilege but a calculated campaign of manipulation by European Islamists and self-interested Middle Eastern governments. If the images first published in Jyllands-Posten last September are so inherently offensive that they cannot be viewed in any context, why did Danish Muslims distribute them across an Islamic world that seldom looks at Copenhagen newspapers? As Bernard-Henri Levy wrote this week, we have here a case of "self-inflicted blasphemy."

Then there's the question of why there was no reaction whatsoever when Al Fagr, one of Egypt's largest newspapers, published these cartoons on its front page Oct. 17 — that's right, four months ago — during Ramadan. Apparently its editor, Adel Hamouda, isn't as sensitive as his American colleagues.

Nothing, however, quite tops the absurdity of two pieces on the situation done this week by the New York Times and CNN. In the former instance, a thoughtful essay by the paper's art critic was illustrated with a 7-year-old reproduction of Chris Ofili's notorious painting of the Virgin Mary smeared with elephant dung. (Apparently, her fans aren't as touchy as Muhammad's.) Thursday, CNN broadcast a story on how common anti-Semitic caricatures are in the Arab press and illustrated it with —you guessed it — one virulently anti-Semitic cartoon after another. As the segment concluded, Wolf Blitzer looked into the camera and piously explained that while CNN had decided as a matter of policy not to broadcast any image of Muhammad, telling the story of anti-Semitism in the Arab press required showing those caricatures.

He didn't even blush.

If the Danish cartoons are, in fact, being withheld from most American newspaper readers and television viewers out of restraint born of a newfound respect for people's religious sensitivities, a great opportunity to prove the point is coming. A major American studio, Sony, shortly will release a film version of Dan Brown's bestselling novel "The Da Vinci Code." It's fair to say that you'd have to go back to the halcyon days of the Nativist publishing operations in the 19th century to find a popular book quite as blatantly and vulgarly anti-Catholic as this one.

Its plot is a vicious little stew of bad history, fanciful theology and various slanders directed at the Vatican and Opus Dei, an organization to which thousands of Catholic people around the world belong. In this vile fantasy, the Catholic hierarchy is corrupt and manipulative and Opus Dei is a violent, murderous cult. The late Pope John Paul II is accused of subverting the canonization process by pushing sainthood for Josemaría Escrivá, Opus' founder, as a payoff for the organization's purported "rescue" of the Vatican bank. The plot's principal villain is a masochistic albino Opus Dei "monk" for whom murder is just one of many sadistic crimes. (It probably won't do any good to point out that, while it's unclear whether Opus Dei has any albino members, there definitely are no monks.)

Now many Catholics, this one included, regard Opus Dei as a creepy outfit with an unwholesome affinity for authoritarianism gleaned from its formative years in Franco's Spain. But neither it nor its members are corrupt or murderous. It is a moral — though thankfully not legal — libel to suggest otherwise. Further, it is deeply offensive to allege — even fictionally — that the Roman Catholic Church would tolerate Opus, or any organization, if it were any of those things.

So how will the American news media respond to the release of this film?

Certainly, there should be reviews since this is a news event, though it would be a surprise if any of them had something substantive to say about these issues. But what about publishing feature stories, interviews or photographs? Isn't that offensive, since they promote the film? More to the point, should newspapers and television networks refuse to accept advertising for this film since plainly that would be promoting hate speech? Will our editors and executives declare their revulsion at the very thought of profiting from bigotry?

Naaaaww.

It won't happen for a simple reason that has nothing to do with the ideas being expressed or anybody's sensitivities, religious or otherwise. It won't happen because Pope Benedict XVI isn't about to issue a fatwa against director Ron Howard or star Tom Hanks. It won't happen because Cardinal Roger M. Mahony isn't going to lead an angry mob to burn Sony Studios, and none of the priests of the archdiocese is going to climb into the pulpit Sunday and call for the producer's beheading.

On the other hand, perhaps the events of the last two weeks have shocked our editors and news executives into a communal change of heart when it comes to sensitivities of all religious believers.

Right.

That will happen when pigs soar through the skies on the wings of angels, when the lion reclines with the lamb on high-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets and no one bothers to beat the world's very last sword into a ploughshare because all the hungry have been fed.

Until that glorious day, those of us who inhabit this real world will continue to believe that the American news media's current exercise in mass self-censorship has nothing to do with either sensitivity or restraint and everything to do with timidity and expediency.

A very good an honest article posted by Benefan.

The cartoon fiasco and resultant unacceptable reaction of certain factions in Islam immediately brought the double standards of the world's media vis-a-vis religious sensitivities to most people's minds.

I've expressed the thought: "Let's see what's going to happen with regard to the Dan Brown movie."
A friend of mine replied:"Nothing will happen. Christians can learn a lot from the Muslims. We have capitulated when it comes to defending Christianity."

Of course she didn't mean that we should act like crazy, murderous fools. But she somehow appreciated the fact that Muslims became angry and showed it... well, that was with regard to the first reactions. Later on she got plain scared!

That set me thinking in circles again: "What CAN Christians do? What SHOULD/SHOULDN'T we do? Should we ignore the "slander" and argue like some intellectuals:"Oh,relax, it's only fiction and everyone knows it", while my experience is that most non-believers - and even some Protestants - gobble up Brown as though he is the new Messiah?

What do the forum members think about this?

I do understand that the Islam reaction was/is also instigated by political thugs; but here in South Africa many Muslims are upset and angry purely from a religious point of view. They're not part of any mid-Eastern political struggle.

On the other hand, the redactor (sorry, can't think of the correct English term!!)of a large and intellectual English newspaper, herself a Muslim, allowed the reprint of these cartoons; and now her life, as well as her mother's, are in danger. Her own people are intimidating her and are inciting murder.

A very "important" South African journalist feels that in a free and democratic society religions SHOULD be open to criticism ---like everything else. Others argue that freedom of speech has limits. But what/where are these limits?

I'd very much like to hear the sisters' thoughts on this matter. And Teresa-B's in particular, as she's had a career in journalism and has perhaps more understandig and insights due to the fact that she was born and raised a little more to "the East" than "the West" And I have great trust in your opinions and experience, Teresa.

THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO CRITICISM

I have thought about this topic quite a bit too not so much because of the furor going on right now over the cartoons but because of really awful anti-Christian or anti-Catholic displays in the media or in art shows here in the US that have provoked controversy but haven't really seemed to result in anybody apologizing for these displays or withdrawing them from the public eye. On the contrary, everybody starts screaming "freedom of expression" and "you can't force your religious views on the rest of us", etc. However, there was the "artwork" of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant dung and lately the televised cartoon series depicting her as having her period with the pope somehow involved in the story--both of which really are way over the line from my point of view. Those are examples that deserved some sort of really loud response from Catholics.

Before I put in my two bits about this entire sorry and thoroughly avoidable state of affairs, this item in Zenit today puts the events in a timeline that gives us a better perspective to make our judgments.
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Something Rotten in Denmark?
Crisis Sparked by Cartoons Has Many Layers

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, FEB. 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- That a global crisis could be sparked by the publication of a few cartoons seems to vindicated the old adage of the pen being mightier than the sword. The events have also demonstrated that freedom has its limits, particularly when the deeply held religious beliefs of others are involved.

The Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons last September, after asking artists to depict Islam's prophet. The newspaper's aim was to challenge what it perceived was self-censorship among artists dealing with Islamic issues. A Norwegian newspaper reprinted the images in January.

Then, after demonstrations protesting the cartoons started to gather force, a number of European newspapers reprinted the cartoons, in what they considered to be a defense of freedom of expression. With a few exceptions, media in Anglo-Saxon countries have refrained from publishing the cartoons.

The events have provoked a lively debate in the press. A Feb. 3 editorial in the London-based Timesnoted that the paper refrained from reprinting the images. It would have been a needlessly gratuitous insult to do so, months after their original publication, the editorial said. It did add, however, that the protests by Muslims "would carry more weight if pictures that crudely insult Jews and Christians were not found regularly in the Middle East."

By contrast, another British newspaper, the Telegraph, in an editorial the same day defended "the right to offend," even as it opted not to publish the cartoons. The Guardian newspaper said that the right of free speech is an important principle, but added: "There are limits and boundaries -- of taste, law, convention, principle or judgment." The editorial noted, for example, that British newspapers regularly publish stories about child pornography, but so far none have reproduced examples of it.

The German newsweekly Die Zeit did republish one of the caricatures. "It was the right thing to do," argued the magazine's Washington bureau chief, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff. He wrote a column in Tuesday's edition of the Washington Post.

Kleine-Brockhoff explained that Die Zeit would not have printed the cartoons if they had been originally offered to the magazine. Freedom of the press is accompanied by a responsibility not to inflame opinion, he stated. Yet, "the criteria change when material that is seen as offensive becomes newsworthy."

Moreover, he affirmed: "To publish does not mean to endorse." Kleine-Brockhoff noted that the Mideast governments now protesting the issue are also responsible for oppressing their own religious minorities. Should we counsel "tolerance toward intolerance?" he asked.

A former prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Eastern Churches, in an interview published Feb. 3, said that targets for satire should be carefully chosen. Cardinal Achille Silvestrini told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that satire has its limits. While it may be permissible to poke fun at a priest, or Islamic customs, he said, it is another matter to attack God, the Koran or Allah.

Freedom of expression, therefore, must be accompanied by respect, argued the cardinal. And, he added, Western culture needs to limit its affirmation of liberty as an absolute value.

The theme of limits to liberty was also dealt with by one of Rome's auxiliary bishops, Rino Fisichella, in an interview with the newspaper Il Messaggero last Saturday. Absolute liberty does not exist, he affirmed. Moreover, liberty is not meant to be used against others, but to favor others and to grow.

The press, Bishop Fisichella insisted, needs to understand that the space available for liberty to be exercised is limited by the respect for others, not only as persons, but also for their beliefs and faith.

That same day, the Vatican press office issued a statement on the matter of the cartoons. The right to freedom of thought and expression, it said, "cannot imply the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers." But equally deplorable, the statement added, are the violent reactions of protest: "Real or verbal intolerance, no matter where it comes from, as action or reaction, is always a serious threat to peace."

Anver Emon, who teaches Islamic law at the University of Toronto, also deplored the violence by Muslim protesters. But, in a commentary published Monday by the Canadian newspaper National Post, Emon pointed out the difficult circumstances under which many Muslims live.

In Europe, he noted, Muslims are often confined to the margins of society, suffering continual criticisms about the detrimental effect their presence will have on the continent. Then, too, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, plus the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian strife, have led to a high level of tension in the Mideast, Emon observed.

Back in Denmark, meanwhile, additional details surrounding those infamous cartoons have put some of the protagonists in a different light. On Monday the British newspaper Guardian reported that three years ago the Jyllands-Posten refused to run drawings making fun of Jesus Christ. The Danish newspaper made that decision on the grounds that the drawings could be offensive to readers and were not funny.

---

Then, on Tuesday, a Palestinian imam living in Denmark, Ahmed Abu-Laban, came in for criticism in an article published by the Wall Street Journal. Abu-Laban put together a delegation that toured the Mideast with a dossier about the Jyllands-Posten cartoons, the Journal reported.

The dossier, in addition to the published cartoons, also contained other highly offensive pictures that never appeared in the Jyllands-Posten. The dossier also made a number of false affirmations about supposed ill-treatment of Muslims in Denmark

---

.In fact, the whole row over the cartoons has been hijacked by extremists, according to Financial Times commentator Philip Stephens. The decision by the Saudi, Iranian and Syrian governments to withdraw their ambassadors from Copenhagen, for example, "was an act of political calculation," Stephens reported in an article published Tuesday. Knowing well that the Danish government does not control the press, the three Mideast governments nevertheless chose to escalate the controversy for their own motives, Stephens contended.

Likewise, a state TV announcer in Iran depicted the cartoons as an insult to Islam made by the Danish government, not a private newspaper, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The AP also noted that in Syria, where the state has absolute control, few believe the protesters who stirred up violence could have gotten away with their acts without tacit government consent.

The protests are also being fanned by extremists, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Text messages to mobile phones, Internet blogs and e-mails are being sent all over the world. Radical Islamic Web sites also echo calls to violence. The material circulated often contains false information and exaggerations, designed to inflame passions, the Post said.

"We are confronted by misinformation passed on by mobile messages and Web logs at such high speed that it is picked up and acted upon before we have a chance to correct it," commented Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at a news conference Tuesday.

A recent meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference saw Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah appeal to Muslim leaders to unite in opposing extremists who, he argued, have hijacked their religion.

"It bleeds the heart of a believer," Abdullah was quoted as saying in a Reuters report Dec. 7, "to see how this glorious civilization has fallen from the height of glory to the ravine of frailty and how its thoughts were hijacked by devilish and criminal gangs that spread havoc on earth."

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also issued a solemn warning. Muslims across the world, he said, were in a state of "disunity and discord." Even non-Muslims could agree with that.
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I still have not figured out how to use color enhancements on these posts; I indented a section above (as in a quote) to highlight its contents - as it shows how the situation was clearly manipulated more than 4 months after the original incident to fan the flames of extremism even more.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/02/2006 2.53]

How many more unnecessary deaths and riots will we have to live with before the Western media stop burning incense at the altar of “freedom of expression” as the absolute measure of everything they do?

No human freedom is absolute – it is always limited by the possible harm that indiscriminate exercise of any freedom can do to someone else.

The Danish newspaper that started this chain of events is clearly at fault. The Zenit article says: “The Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons last September, after asking artists to depict Islam's prophet. The newspaper's aim was to challenge what it perceived was self-censorship among artists dealing with Islamic issues.”

The editors were either uneducated or foolishly stupid. If they had the least bit of background about Islam, they would have known that the religion forbids any pictorial depiction of God or his prophet Muhammad. If they knew this, to specifically ask their artists “to depict Islam’s prophet” was just sheer stupidity and crass insensitivity. Surely, they realized it was going to fuel outrage in the Islamic world, to say the least. One does not show lack of “self-censorship (in) dealing with Islamic issues” by doing something that is clearly an offence to Islam and all its followers! The Europeans should watch and learn from America’s late-night comics who regularly satirize targets in Islamic countries in truly funny ways that are not offensive to Islam, the religion!

An intelligent cartoonist would have known to satirize other aspects of Islamic society today without a facile and gratuitous depiction of Muhammad. The cartoon showing a bomb in the prophet’s turban clearly blasphemes the prophet by attributing to him a characteristic of his extremist followers; it is neither funny, clever nor particularly original – it’s just a pathetic and thoroughly gratuitous offense! And look what a thoroughly disproportionate catastrophe that inept little undistinguished drawing has given rise to!

The cartoon about Paradise having run out of virgins could have worked just as well if it had left out Muhammad, and perhaps just had a dejected suicide bomber sitting outside the Pearly Gates and lamenting, “Time out down there! They said they have run out of virgins for us!” or something to that effect.

There are many other better ways of defending freedom of expression without unnecessarily offending sensitivities and provoking violence.

The second issue is: What is gained by other Western newspapers reproducing the offensive cartoons at this time? Absolutely nothing! Because it is continuing news now, the story can be reported without reproducing the cartoons – they can be described quite simply. The Islamic prohibition against pictorial depiction of Muhammad is a general ban – the reader does not have to see what was shown because any illustration would have been offensive.

Those who sanctimoniously but erroneously reproduced the offensive material in the name of "freedom of expression" were simply being foolish. Discretion is the better part of valor. Prudence and common sense should have told them you do not make anything right by repeating the original offense. If they have to be paladins for "freedom of expression", there are other ways to do that without adding insult to injury!

The German correspondent who claimed that “ the criteria change when material that is seen as offensive becomes newsworthy" misses the point completely. Newsworthy or not, the material remains offensive.

Which brings us to the third issue: Is it possible that the erring Danish editors had become so inured by the habitual offensiveness shown by most Western media towards Christianity, and especially towards Roman Catholicism, that they were just trying to be equal-opportunity offenders?

For some reason, the gods of liberalism and political correctness before whom most Western media worship have decreed that the world must be solicitously, scrupulously attentive to everyone else’s sensitivities except when it concerns Christians and Catholics. So we have the spectacle of a strident militant minority in the United States, where at least 80% of the population is Christian, trying to wipe out the Christian presence anywhere in the public sphere, down to objecting to the word Christmas! (I hate to be mean, and it is an idle thought, but maybe a nation that has bought 20 million copies or whatever of Dan Brown’s best-selling calumny of the Catholic Church may be getting what it deserves?)

Since when has “political correctness” – an odious concept dreamed up by perverse liberals who think of themselves as intellectuals of the first order – supplanted democracy, which is supposed to be, among other things, the rule of the majority? In a democracy, one also has freedom of religion (including the lack of it) as well as freedom of expression. Why should an atheist, whom no one is stopping from proclaiming his atheism, sue to take out God’s name from the oath of allegiance, seek to purge any mention of God from official documents and therefore seek to negate America’s history, culture and tradition?

Worse public blasphemies have been heaped on Christ, his followers and Christian icons than have ever been directed at any other religion and its symbols. But the Christian turns the other cheek, because that is what Christ teaches. Because Christians will not loot and burn and kill to avenge blasphemies and insults, we have been open game for the most gratuitous offenses, but we seem not to be mobilizing enough public protest against such offenses – not enough letters to the editor, e-mail to swamp network systems, or even a boycott of offending products or establishments.(Maybe Catholics should keep away in droves from the movie based on Brown's novel!)

As for those Christians or Catholics who may have been seduced into thinking that Dan Brown is the be-all and end-all of religious information, we can only pray that they may be enlightened by the Holy Spirit – through the witness of Christian living shown by those whose religious education enables them to withstand the cheap stunts of the Dan Browns of this world, and through appropriate catechesis from gifted evangelists who can convey the message of Christ as the Pope does.

Full marks, Teresa-Benedetta. Thank you.

Opus Dei tackles "Da Vinci Code" image problem

By Claudia Parsons Sun Feb 12, 9:25 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Portrayed in the best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" as a secretive cult willing to murder to defend a fictional 2,000-year-old Catholic cover-up, Opus Dei is promoting its softer side before the movie of the book arrives in May.

Published in March 2003, Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is one of the most popular books in publishing history with more than 40 million copies in print worldwide in 44 languages.

The book is also controversial because the plot stems from the idea Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and had children. Because of this, the novel has been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church.

"It's very sad that Opus Dei and the Catholic Church were portrayed unfairly in the novel," said Opus Dei spokesman Brian Finnerty. "What we're trying to do is take advantage of the interest to explain what the real Opus Dei is all about."

Opus Dei is a far-flung, conservative Catholic organization blessed by the Pope in 1982 with a special status in the church. Founded in 1928 in Spain by Jose Maria Escriva with a mission to teach Catholics to strive for holiness through their work, Opus Dei has 85,000 members worldwide, of which around 2,000 are priests. Escriva was made a saint in 2002.

But as the whipping boy of church liberals for years and with estranged members telling of coercive recruitment tactics and corporal mortification, Opus Dei has been controversial. Now, because of "The Da Vinci Code," it has to do even more to overcome the unblessed image portrayed by the book.

Opus Dei appears in the story as a shadowy cult whose henchman is a murderous albino monk named Silas, who makes himself bleed with a cilice -- a spiked metal belt strapped tight around the upper thigh -- for penance.

Passersby who approach the organization's 17-story building in Manhattan are invited to reach for a leaflet to learn about the real Opus Dei, which means "God's work."

Finnerty's job these days is to promote the group and give reporters tours of the building, a $69 million corner edifice in midtown Manhattan housing a luxurious conference center on five floors as well as accommodations and offices for around 65 members.

COUNTRY-HOUSE STYLE

Waiting rooms and lounges are furnished in country-house style with leather armchairs, antique-style furniture and elegant bookshelves carrying religious and historical works as well as novels by the likes of Willa Cather and Jane Austen.

An airy conservatory leads out to a roof-top terrace with deck-chairs, potted plants and a small statue of the Virgin and Child. Two middle-aged men were discussing "investment philosophy" in the conservatory when a visitor passed through.

A few floors down is what looks like a hotel VIP lounge with a grand piano and views of the iconic Chrysler Building.

"It's like a very nice home," Finnerty said. "It's not at all like a monastery or a 'Da Vinci Code' setting. You won't see anyone like Silas walking through here dripping blood."

John Allen, author of a book on Opus Dei, said it had long been a "lightening rod" for liberal Catholics to criticize.

"Dan Brown didn't make up the idea of Opus Dei as the boogeyman of the Catholic Church," Allen told Reuters in a phone interview from Rome, where he reports on the Vatican.

"Critics would often say Opus Dei is a very conservative version of Catholicism. Some would say it is a very worldly version of Catholicism focused on wealth and power," he said.

The late Pope John Paul II was an admirer of Opus Dei, but Allen said its influence was not as strong as some think.

Allen said just two of the 115 cardinals who elected Pope Benedict were Opus Dei, and the group claimed only around 40 of the world's 4,500 bishops as members.

"They simply don't have the stranglehold on power that people imagine," Allen said, adding that Opus Dei's wealth was also exaggerated by critics. Worldwide assets were around $2.8 billion, he said, with U.S. assets of $350 million -- around the same as a mid-sized diocese.

Finnerty emphasized Opus Dei's charitable work, including schools and hospitals in the United States and Africa.

But some former members writing on the Web site of the Opus Dei Awareness Network say that aspect is overshadowed by coercive and cult-like recruitment tactics that alienate members from their families and pressure people into harmful practices such as the use of the cilice.

Marc Carroggio, an Opus Dei spokesman brought in from Rome as a reinforcement before the film, said corporal mortification was a small and "marginal" element of Opus Dei, and voluntary. Finnerty added that Mother Theresa wore a form of a cilice.

He said Opus Dei wrote to Sony Pictures asking them to leave the organization out of the movie but to no avail, so it now aims to use the film as a "teaching moment."

I was first “introduced” to Opus Dei in the best manner possible. On a Holy Week visit to Rome during a press assignment, my executive editor asked to be accompanied to the Rome headquarters of Opus Dei, where its founder, Jose Maria Escriva Balaguer (canonized some 15 years later), was buried. My editor had promised to make the visit on behalf of his wife, who had recently joined Opus Dei and who had asked him to do it for her. Although I was vaguely aware that there was an important lay movement in the Church called Opus Dei, I had not really bothered to learn about it. This time, I had no choice. You do not pay respects at a holy man’s tomb and come away ignorant.

And what I did learn about the movement was impressive. I appreciated the concept of encouraging a lay apostolate among people who would continue to be “of this world” while carrying out their individual services to God. In other words, that it was possible to “pray and work” like members of religious orders did, but without withdrawing oneself from the lay world. It was the very practical equivalent of what my guru in Eastern religions always said – “You do not need to go to a mountaintop to meditate.”

At the same time, I appreciated that the movement has its rules, some of which are not easy for most people to follow. That explains why it is far from being a “popular” movement. Therefore, one can only admire those who do commit themselves to the rules of the movement. Without abandoning the world for a cloister, they agree to be bound by certain rules and to follow certain practices (none of which I find sinister or unusual).

To someone brought up in a Catholic school, the idea of physical mortification (use of the cilice, for instance) as a means of penance was routine. The nuns made me kneel on a mat strewn with tiny beans if I was “too talkative” during class. I used to try wearing my own version of the cilice - I tied a series of knots into a piece of string and wore that around my waist directly next to my skin as tightly as I could draw it in, but other than some discomfort, that really was not as punishing as kneeling on beans! I even tried beating myself on the back with a whip – I was never strong enough to even raise a welt – until my confessor told me that self-mortification had its uses but it was not necessary, that I could carry out penance in other, more constructive ways!

Because of my job, I eventually came to know a number of Opus Dei members who were either government officials or prominent members of Manila society. Their common virtue was what appeared to be absolute dedication to their commitment, coupled with absolute discretion. You do not advertise you are Opus Dei; you do not talk about it unless you are asked, and even then, you limit your answers to what is informative about the movement, not about yourself; and you do your works anonymously.

So I am glad that the movement is “making lemonade” out of the sour lemons that Dan Brown has chosen to propagate and cultivate about it and about the Catholic Church. ( I would have called them poisonous lemons, but you shouidn’t make poison lemonade1). And I hope that its information campaign works in some way to counteract the poison spread by 40 million books and counting, and now a Tom Hanks movie yet!

Catholics of the world, boycott the book and the movie!
And Dan Brown fans and readers, a novel is FICTION, remember? NOT FACT, no matter how much verisimilitude a skillful writer can work into his fiction.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/02/2006 21.19]

I've read about 40% of the content of John Allen's book on Opus Dei. It became clear that Dan Brown's portrayal is total rubbish. If Allen's assessment of Opus Dei is mainly positive, I believe it, since he seems to be a somewhat "liberal" Catholic.