Father John Wauck on Opus Dei and the Da Vinci Code

Today we have a conversation with Father John Wauck on the Da Vinci Code and Opus Dei.

I discovered his web site, Opus Dei and the Da Vinci Code, and immediately wanted to interview him on this subject.

Father John Wauck is an American priest of Opus Dei. A native of Chicago, he studied Renaissance history and literature at Harvard University and philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, where he has lived for the last ten years.

He teaches a course on literature and Christian faith at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (in 2005, this course was aired as a 13-part television series, called "A Mirror of the Soul," on EWTN) and organizes an international seminar entitled Poetics and Christianity.

He has written for many publications, including The American Scholar, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New Criterion, and appeared frequently as a television commentator on matters dealing with the Catholic Church. Before his priestly ordination, he worked as an editor of The Human Life Review and as a speechwriter for the Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, and for the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Robert P. Casey.

Ironically, we never really got to speaking about Da Vinci's Mona Lisa! We did cover several of the more controversial aspects with a slight emphasis on Opus Dei, considering he is a priest of Opus Dei.

Father Wauck Comments on...

• the Annunciation (includes the Gospel Reading from 03/25/06, Luke 1:26-38).
• What is it that makes the Da Vinci code compelling and popular with millions of people around the world.
• A person who reads this novel and treats it as "Fact" is making a huge error.
• Where we should start when evaluating the inaccuracies contained in the Da Vinci Code.
• The Gnostic Gospels. (The best "cure" for thinking the Gnostic Gospels have validity is read them!)
• The Council of Nicea: Who called it, why it was called, what was its purpose.
• There is no coherent theological system contain among the Gnostic Gospels.
• Why it is important for Catholics to believe that Jesus wasn't married.
• The role of women in the Catholic tradition is greater than that of any other religion that we know of.
• The "missing Mary" of the Da Vinci Code is not Mary Magdalene, it is the Blessed Virgin Mary.
• The definition of monk as a one who lives in a monastery
• The canonical status of Opus Dei as a personal prelature (not a sect or an order)
• The Priory of Sion was actually fabricated by a French fraud from the 1950's
• Dan Brown's gigantic exaggeration and narrow interpretation of the practice of corporal mortification
• Opus Dei is not a secretive organization
• The mission of Opus Dei is to promote holiness among lay Catholics, that every baptized person is called to be a saint and an apostle, to convert the "prose of everyday life into heroic verse"