Opus Dei offers defense

The entrance to the national headquarters of the Roman Catholic group Opus Dei is the last place you would expect to find mention of “The Da Vinci Code.”

The conservative organization has spent the past few years trying to escape the best-seller’s shadow, after the novel portrayed it as a murderous sect fixated on power and self-mutilation.

But now the low-profile spiritual community is starting a drive to improve its image ahead of a major film based on the book – and that campaign begins at the group’s front door, where a sign invites fans of the Dan Brown novel to learn about “the real Opus Dei.”

The book contends that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had descendants, and that Opus Dei and the Roman Catholic Church were at the center of covering it up. An Opus Dei follower commits the murder that sets the plot in motion.

“The unfortunate thing is there are going to be tens of millions of people who will read the novel and see the movie and have that be their only exposure to Opus Dei,” says Brian Finnerty, a spokesman for the group.

The movie, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, is set for release May 19 and already is expected to be a blockbuster.

In a statement released this week, Opus Dei said it had no intention of calling for a boycott. But the group said it hopes the film still could be changed so “there aren’t references that would hurt Catholics … particularly in these days in which everyone has noted the painful consequences of intolerance” – an apparent reference to violence in the Muslim world sparked by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Opus Dei, which has 86,000 lay and clergy members worldwide, including 3,000 in the United States, also is trying to counter the movie with its own productions.

It has commissioned a short documentary that extols the benefits of its emphasis on personal holiness in daily life. Leaders also are working with American and British TV networks on independent documentaries about the organization to be broadcast around the movie’s release.

Reporters are being invited to tour the $57 million U.S. headquarters in New York City, which is a residence for Opus Dei members and a center for community activities.

The organization plans to highlight its charity projects worldwide, including work with young people in poor Chicago neighborhoods and a wide range of health and communications efforts in Africa.

It also has turned to the Web for help. Among the many postings is a new blog on “The Da Vinci Code” by a young Opus Dei priest based in Rome.

And in a surprising partnership, the group has struck a deal with the novel’s publishing house, Doubleday, to release “The Way,” a collection of spiritual thought by Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva. Its release date is just 10 days before the movie opens.

Opus Dei’s image problems did not begin with Brown’s novel and likely will not end with the film.

Ever since it was founded in Spain in 1928, the organization has been controversial both within and outside the church.

Inside the church, it is unusual for a group to bring together men and women, and lay people and clergy, in one association to spread the Gospel.

Outsiders have especially seized on Opus Dei’s practice of “corporal mortification.” About 30 percent of lay members have taken vows of celibacy, and they wear a small barbed chain around the upper leg called a “cilice” for part of the day as a spiritual discipline.

Some ex-members have started opposition groups, such as the Opus Dei Awareness Network, to raise questions about this and other practices by the group.

Secrecy also is an issue. Opus Dei’s historic resistance to revealing the names of its members, leaving that decision to individuals, has sparked claims that it is a cult.

Still, spokesman Finnerty says the book brought a new level of hostility. His office still receives e-mails and letters that he characterizes as hateful.

Author Brown said on his Web site that he worked “very hard to create a fair and balanced depiction of Opus Dei.” A spokesman for Sony Pictures Entertainment says the story is “not a religious tract, and it is certainly not meant to criticize any group, religious or otherwise.”

Finnerty says that when the plot was first made public in the trade press, a colleague told him the story line was so silly no one would buy it. Three years and millions of sales later, Opus Dei hopes to turn the notoriety to its advantage.

Says Finnerty: “It’s given us a lot of opportunities to talk about who we really are.”