www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Moscow Patriarchate Deacon-Theologian Sees Masonic Attack In Da Vinci Code

Very interesting interview. He mentions the age-old animosity toward the Catholic Church by Masonry. Enjoy.

Fr. Deacon Robert

Interfax [interfax-religion.com]

Interview

29 May 2006, 18:24
Standing behind the stormy campaign around the Da Vinci Code are Masons whose aim is to marginalize the Christian Church


Deacon Andrey Kurayev, professor at Moscow Theological Academy and well-known Orthodox theologian, sought to dispel some of the myths underlying and referred to in the Da Vinci Code novel, in an interview to Interfax-Religion.


- The stormy campaign around the Da Vinci Code, unexpected but also intriguing for many, has unwittingly put in one�s head the thought about its possible instigators. Simply speaking, qui prodest � who benefits from it?

- The Da Vinci Code is a typical conspiracy work with the principal aim to say that the world is ruled by secret lodges. There is too much fantasy in Brown�s novel. But the very story of its promotion proves the truth of its principal affirmation. Indeed, artistically Mr. Brown�s novel is a clear nil: the cartoon-like protagonists lacking any inner depth and credibility unfold through the plot to fit ultimately in a put-up puzzle. Every action is a clich� adapted to a certain super-goal of propaganda nature. The more so as the book has no academic value.

However, the campaign that advertised first the book and then the film points to very serious funds and resources invested in this project.

The development around the novel can be described as nothing else than another volley fired in ages-old cold war between the Masons and the Catholic Church. It was a real Masonic structure acting in our world that revealed itself in the advertising campaign around Mr. Brown�s book.

I am not one of those who maintain that all that happens around us is linked with the Masons, but I believe it idiotism to ignore the presence of these closed elite structures in the fabric of society beginning from the 18th century to this day. There are open Masonic editions in which they commend themselves and there are openly existing recruit club such as Rotary Club and Lyons Club.

And now we see the ways in which one of the Masonic main goals is realized, and they do not conceal it. It is marginalization of the traditional Christian Church. The apologists of the Da Vinci Code have used all possible places including the Cannes Film Festival stair carpet to try to assure everyone that the book is a mere light fiction.

If it is a fiction, everyone is free to fantasize at will. But the Da Vinci Code commends itself from the first page as a research work. Already the third paragraph on the first page maintains that �all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate�.

But opening the page with a description of Leonardo da Vinci�s Madonna of the Rocks, we read: �Mary was holding one hand high above the head of infant John and making a decidedly threatening gesture � her fingers looking like eagle�s talons...� How can it be an objective and credible description of Leonardo�s painting? It is enough to look at the bright Image of Mary on this canvas to realize she was not going to �threaten� anybody with �talons�.

By the way, Brown (perhaps following the tradition of Mexican soup-operas) confused the babies: Mary�s hand is hanging in a protective gesture over the head of Jesus. This baby is clearly smaller than the one embraced by Mary, as Jesus was junior to John by half a year, and the London�s version of the same painting features a tall cross-like staff in the hand of the Precursor, pointing clearly who is where. Langdon therefore is wrong to wonder why Da Vinci�s �baby John was blessing Jesus... and Jesus was submitting to his authority�.

Equally biased is the description of the Last Supper. In the original, Peter�s hand simply lies on John�s shoulder in an encouraging gesture. In the Code, John is identified with Mary Magdalene.

- And what about the description of documents?

- The �Grail� of the novel represents �thousands of ancient documents as scientific evidence that the New Testament is false testimony�. We read on, �the Bible represents a fundamental guidepost for millions of people on the planet, in much the same way the Koran, Torah, and Pali Canon offer guidance to people of other religions�. Let us forgive him a popular amateurish mistake of opposing the Bible and the Torah. But what is this holy Pali Canon? Pali is the language in which some of the Buddhist texts are written. Brown�s protagonists are skilled in identifying and interpreting allegories. But in spite of their Gnostic statement that �religious allegory has become a part of the fabric of reality�, they are inclined to understand �Jesus� kisses� more than literally.

The funniest thing in Brown�s book from the point of view of a religious researcher is an attempt to present early Christian heretics (Gnostics), who wrote the �Gospels� he refers to as those who look benevolently at the world, flesh, marriage, sex, woman. In reality the Gnostics just as neo-Platonic heathens were ashamed of their corporal nature. The key affirmation of the �Gospel of Judas� so much boosted by the �Priory of Sion� is that �cosmos is hell�. We read in the �Gospel of Thomas�: �He who has found the world has found a corpse�.

A similar garbling is used by this author when he alleges that Gnostics and their apocrypha asserted the human nature of Christ, contrary to the orthodox who deified Christ. Quite the contrary, the Gnostic �Gospels� say almost nothing about the earthly life of Christ (not all the apocrypha are written by Gnostics; some, exactly those which give more biographical details, have their origin in folklore). The principal affirmation made by the Da Vinci Code in religious research is that Christianity has borrowed all its ideas and symbols from heathenism. This idea was very much in fashion in the 19th century, but modern religious research, including secular studies, no longer believes that. The principal idea of Christianity is that the One Pre-Eternal God, the Creator of the Universe, became Man precisely freely, for His love of human beings, not for the sake of solving some inner problems and intrigues, and He sacrificed Himself for the sake of human beings.

Another typical educational Masonic idea, which was long rejected even by atheistic religious studies, is that the entire evolution of religion is realization of the will to power, and that the clergy elaborate a doctrine in their own self-interest. Here again we arrive at a contradiction. If everything in Christianity has been borrowed from heathenism so bright and feministic, why then Christianity has come out so �dark�? Is it possible that heathen sages and priests pursued their own self-interests when they created their �symbols of the feminine principle�?

A lot of affirmations in the Da Vinci Code are easily refuted by an address to primary sources and academic publications.

Brown maintains that for the three centuries of hunting witches the Inquisition burnt five millions women, including midwives. With these quantities it is strange that there is anybody at all remaining in Western Europe.

Another Brown�s �credible� allegation is that the First Ecumenical Council decided which Gospels were to be considered authentic and which imaginary. But no sources of the 4th century mentioned anything to this effect. Nor any of the 5th century sources mentioned that.

The version that it was the Council of Nicea that established the biblical canon was first voiced in Lebellus synodicus published in 1601 by John Pappus, a theologian in Strasbourg. It is evident from this that he was in no way a contemporary of the 325 Council. The work of Mr. Brown abounds with strained arguments of this kind � the fact that does not allow of taking it as scientifically correct in the least. But the publicity around the Code is built on the kaleidoscope of mutually exclusive assurances. Thus, at one point it is said all of a sudden that the book is �a pure fiction, so do not scold us�, but a moment later the same advertising agents begin to pontificate that Brown has finally established the great truth and we now know the truth about Christianity.

- Your greatest surprise when reading the novel?

- The absence of the Masonic fable about a Church council that was allegedly held in antiquity to discuss with all the seriousness whether woman should be considered to be human being or not and to adopt by a one-vote majority the presence of soul in �old women� as well. It is the favorite Masonic feministic fable. Strangely, Brown did not play with it. Perhaps he is yet an apprentice. He is lacking erudition or saving this trump card for his next novel.

I was also surprised at the somewhat childish codes. As I was reading the book I found four clues on my own, while Langdon was still toiling over them.

- What reaction to the story of the Da Vinci Code you think would be the most adequate and successful?

- A scientific analysis of some pages from Brown would be quite relevant and it is not difficult to make it. An analysis will show immediately that before us is a poor fiction which set itself the task to insult the faith of millions of people in the world. And this is exactly the falsehood of the so-called fiction. Picket lines at movie theatres will not be helpful. Those who have decided to stand in them will do it anyway. The picket lines will rather attract those who are indifferent. It would be better to commission an analysis of Brown�s book to religious researchers and theologians and to publish a leaflet, or even better a parody, and to distribute their copies at movie theatre entrances. I would suggest this title for the leaflet: �Brown-anti-duping Aid�.

- Is it a sin to see the film?

- No, it is not a sin, what is sinful is killing time, like playing cards. One can see a lot of things. The question is how one relates to what one has seen.

Excellent article - but the Gnostics were never "Christians" nor even "Christian heretics."

They were polytheists, hated the human body and were opposed to the idea of the resurrection of the human body - and to marriage because it involved women.

Other than that, excellent article.

Alex

"Another Brown�s �credible� allegation is that the First Ecumenical Council decided which Gospels were to be considered authentic and which imaginary. But no sources of the 4th century mentioned anything to this effect. Nor any of the 5th century sources mentioned that."

Nor was it mentioned that the Apostolic and Sub-Apostolic Fathers recorded a great deal about what was authentic in order to show as, St. Irenaeus said, that the inventions of the heretics were of later date than the true original Gospels.

Dear Jessup,

The following has me confused:

I continuously hear about the Masons, and how they are or were behind this or that, especially in reference to the RCC. Well I googled the Masons, and found that they have members of all religions. Not only that, but George Washington and Benjamin Franklyn were members... not to mention others that are well known and respected. Or so they say! :rolleyes:

So my question is, (and really I wish someone would elaborate...that means you Alex), why the RCC has always felt that the Masons were against the Church.

Zenovia

Dear Zenovia,

The core problem with Freemasonry, from the standpoint of Christianity, is that they deny that one needs union with Jesus Christ in order to get to the Father. Those Masons who believe in God (this varies from Lodge to Lodge-Western European lodges tend to be hotbeds of militant atheism and hostility to the Church) believe that all religions are equal, and that all religions lead to God. Obviously, this, in itself, is a problem for Catholicism.In the English-speaking world, Masonry tends toward belief in a non-Christian God, as I outlined above, and they are engaged in a lot of philanthropic work. In places like Italy and France, there is more atheism and hostility toward the Church by Freemasons. Politically, they work against the Church. The French Revolution, and Rationalistic Enlightenment thinking, were the products of French Masonry (the Duke of Orleans, who joined the Revolution, was a Freemason). It has been said by some historical commentators (John Robison, Abbe Barruel, Nesta Webster)that "Continental Masonry" is so hostile to the Church and Religion because it, in turn, had been taken over by adherents of a secret society known as the "Order of Illuminati", founded by one Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria 1776. The Illuminati had as their agenda the overthrow of Christian monarchies, replacing them with a "new world order" (sound familiar?) ruled by "reason". The French Revolution was the first attempt at this. The ideology of Communist regimes also flowed from this "enlightenment" thinking. Much of the pre-Revolution anti-Christian thought in Russia is said to have had French Masonic roots.I have a friend whose father was born in Sicily. The father was a devout Roman Catholic, but his (the father's) brother was a Freemason attached to a Sicialian Lodge. I am told that, as part of the initiation rite, he had to spit on a crucifix. Perhaps this gives some light as to why Freemasons used to be considered automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church (they are still denied reception of Holy Communion). I recently read an OCA source (I forget where) that indicated that if an OCA-affiliated Freemason is buried with Masonic ritual, he cannot have a Christian burial. The family had to choose one or another. I also know that the Missouri-Synod Lutherans refuse church membership to Masons. Hope this sheds some light.

Fr. Deacon Robert

There are those who are quite reputable (Fr. Malachi Martin) who tell us that some Masons are involved with the black mass.

From the:

CATHOLIC DICTIONARY THE CATHOLIC PRESS, INC. 1950

Black Mass. The name of a blasphemous and sacrilegious parody of the Mass in which the Sacrifice is offered to the devil. This abominable perversion, an outgrowth of medieval witchcraft, was practiced in the 17th century by members of the court of Louis XIV. In modern times it was revived, especially in France, as a diversion for degenerates.
(Free)Masons. An international fraternal organization which dates in its present form from the first quarter of the 18th century, and claims connection with similar organizations of pre-Christian times. They state their aim as "work for the welfare of mankind" and claim to "strive morally to ennoble themselves and others and thereby to bring about a universal league of mankind."
Catholics are forbidden under pain of excommunication to belong to the Masons. In the beginning, the Masons were largely anticlerical and were guilty of secret and open plotting against the Church and against civil governments. Masonry is also objectionable to Catholics because it is a religion of pure naturalism; Masons have their own beliefs about God, human morality, and the human soul. Moreover, they have their own religious rites. Catholicism, the uniquely true religion founded by Christ, therefore, is irreconcilable with Masonry.

Thanks for the above post. I forgot to mention the aspect of "Naturalism". The Masons are hostile to the supernatural in Religion. Thus, I can see where the Russian Deacon could see Masonic influences in the Da Vinci Code, because of their lowering down to the mere "natural" sphere the person of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.

Dn. Robert

Dear Dn. Robert,

Thank you for the answer.

Zenovia

It's going to be hard to tell the difference between the two of you!

Why just look at the persecution of the Church in Mexico, it was a masonic attack on Catholicism.
Stephanos I
Blessed Martyr Miguel Pro pray for us to God that He may save our souls.

And many other places as well --
Fr. Malachi Martin in his book Keys to this Blood speaks of the well documented Masonic �superforce" and (brief quote from the book)��tied its installation to the beginning of Pope Paul VI's reign in 1963. Indeed, Paul had alluded somberly to "the smoke of Satan which has entered the Sanctuary"-an, oblique reference to an enthronement ceremony by Satanists in the Vatican. Besides, the incidence of Satanic pedophilia-rites and practices-was already documented among certain bishops and priests as widely dispersed as Turin, in Italy, and South Carolina, in the United States. The cultic acts of Satanic pedophilia are considered by professionals to be the culmination of the Fallen Archangel's rites.�

An excerpt from Humanum Genus, Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical on Freemasonry:

"If other proofs are wanting, this fact would be sufficiently disclosed by the testimony of men well informed, of whom some at other times, and others again recently, have declared it to be true of the Freemasons that they especially desire to assail the Church with irreconcilable hostility and that they will never rest until they have destroyed whatever the supreme Pontiffs have established for the sake of religion.
"If those who are admitted as members are not commanded to abjure by any form of words the Catholic doctrines, this omission, so far from adverse to the designs of the Freemasons, is more useful for their purposes. First, in this way they easily deceive the simple-minded and the heedless, and can induce a far greater number to become members. Again, as all who offer themselves are received whatever may be their form of religion, they thereby teach the great error of this age---that a regard for religion should be held as an indifferent matter, and that all religions are alike. This manner of reasoning is calculated to bring about the ruin of all forms of religion, and especially of the Catholic religion, which, as it is the only one that is true, cannot, without great injustice, be regarded as merely equal to other religions."

For reputable Catholic books on Freemasonry see:

http://www.geocities.com/catholic_profide/

http://www.catholicbooks.org/

http://www.catholicbook.com/

Also see below:

http://www.catholicbook.com/images/56.htm

This link is the list of freemasons in the Church from:

The following is a list of Masonic prelates as reprinted in the July, 1976 Bulletin de L'Occident Chretien Nr. 12 (Directeur Pierre Fautrad a Fye- 72490 Bourg Le Roi. All of the men on this list, if they in fact be Masons, are excommunicated by Canon Law 2338. Each man's name is followed by his position, if known; the date he was initiated into Masonry; his code #; and his code name if known.

Is this seriously presented as fact?

Bulletin de L'Occident Chretien is a highly respected Journal, which even Popes have quoted in their writings. If what they report is alarming concerning freemasonry it is because freemasonry is alarming

From the Washington Post at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101814.html

Some brief excerpts:

Paul Marcinkus, Indicted in Bank Scandal
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 22, 2006; Page B05

Paul C. Marcinkus, 84, the papal bodyguard dubbed "the Gorilla" and a titular archbishop who led the Vatican bank into a monetary scandal of staggering proportions, died Feb. 20 at his home in Sun City, Ariz. He reportedly had emphysema.

He was said to have safeguarded the pontiff in 1970 from a knife-wielding assailant at the Manila airport. This endeared Archbishop Marcinkus to the church's leader, �

Archbishop Marcinkus �in 1982 �he was indicted as an accessory in the multibillion-dollar financial collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, �

Shortly after the news broke, Ambrosiano's chairman, Roberto Calvi, sometimes labeled "God's banker" for his Vatican relationships, was found dead under mysterious circumstances -- hanging from a bridge in London in what was officially ruled a suicide. Calvi was said to have had mafia connections, spurring speculation that he would publicly divulge some nexus between the church and the underworld.

The Italian government issued an arrest order for the archbishop and two bank subordinates �the Vatican, an independent state, refused to comply and cited diplomatic immunity. �allowing the archbishop to avoid standing trial.

"I may be a lousy banker," he said during the height of the probe, "but at least I'm not in jail."

�At the bank, his reputation was not improved by links to shadowy figures in Italian finance, including Michele Sindona, a convicted swindler who died in a Milan prison in 1986 after his coffee was laced with cyanide.