Opus Dei, portrayed as a powerful, ultraconservative Roman Catholic faction riddled with sadomasochistic ritual, one of whose members commits serial murder in pursuit of a threatening secret about the church in Dan Browns book, fervently object to their portrayal in his book.

Opus Dei’s rejects claims:

The Da Vinci Code claims that Opus Dei’s members are monks. There are no monks in Opus Dei.The Da Vinci Code describes Opus Dei as endorsing criminal behavior; Opus Dei condemns criminal activity they insist.
The Da Vinci Code calls Opus Dei a “cult” and a “sect.” In fact, Opus Dei is a fully integrated entity of the Catholic Church.
The Da Vinci Code claims that women cannot enter the front doors of the Opus Dei headquarters. Instead, they must use a side entrance. In fact Opus Dei claim, men and women use the front entrance of the headquarters building.

Among the more famous  ranks of the self flagellating member-include powerful public figures such as Mel Gibson and Toni Blair.

Christianity Today Slams the code

Christians less than thrilled with the Da Vinci Code, have been having their say for some time now, this article however does raise some valid points that contrdict Mr Brown…..

An article from the Independant that may be of use to any planning a trip to the area:

The Independent Online

The Cathars were a religious group who appeared in Europe in the eleventh century, their origin seems to be something of a mystery though there is some evidence that their ideas came from Persia by way of the Byzantine Empire. So they fit in well with the Sauniere Mystery, as yet another mysterious element. Records from the Roman Catholic Church mention them under various names and in various locations. Most details that can be found about them are some what vague and fudged. Catholic theologians debated with themselves for centuries whether Cathars were or a Christian ‘cult’ or heretics. The question is apparently still open to debate. Roman Catholics still refer to Cathar belief as “the Great Heresy” though the current official Catholic position is that Cathars are not in fact Christian. The main sticking point and problem that the Catholic Church seems to have had with them is that they refused to believe in the two fundamental ideas the church held dear, the priesthood and that churches were sacred holy buildings. There is also some evidence that they believed in the equality and parity of men and women- not a popular medieval notion!

Berenger Sauniere, the man whose life and mysterious activities sparked th Da Vinci Code mystery and inspired many books such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and the Da Vinci Code, seems to be causing problems even from beyond the grave.It seems Dan Brown has yet another author filing a plagiarism suit against him. This time, it’s an art historian who claims Dan swiped his hypothesis that Leonardo encoded theological ideas in the Mona Lisa. This historian has just released a new book- so the publicity certainly wont go a miss I’m guessing!

Radio RenneSSence has a spectacular premiere. Today the first podcast was published consisting of an in-depth interview with author, playwright and Hollywood icon Patrice Chaplin. Chaplin discusses her new controversial book City of Secrets which unveils a completely new dimension to the mystery, drawing in Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali and Umberto Eco. She reveals the relations between the Grail, Bérenger Saunière and the manifestation of the next Messiah. The interview can be followed online but it can also be downloaded for private use. Later this week the service will be available for Podcast subscription on iTunes.

Brian Kannard’s Grail Seekers today publshed an e-mail from Ed McGrath on his theories about the RLC mysteries and some of the associated paintings. Ed claims we’ve been looking at the wrong Teniers painting all along.