As someone who has been looking forward to seeing this movie, I have been perplexed at how people are taking a piece of fiction as a historical truth. Last time I checked, fiction is defined as “a making up of imaginary happenings, feigning� and “anything made up or imagined, as a statement, story.�

Had Da Vinci Code been released and marketed as a work of Non-Fiction, I then would understand the uproar and disapproval. But it isn’t. It is FICTION! Granted it does build up an elaborate plot with coincidental historical links, but it is all a part of Dan Brown’s exposition, setting up the events of that fateful evening in Paris. Since when do people take fiction as the honest truth?

More importantly, why is the Catholic Church troubled by this one work? Are they afraid that it has the power to shake the faith built over hundreds of years? Will people take this as a true account of the Church’s history and change our opinion of Jesus Christ?

At times, we are asked to suspend belief, in order to appreciate an author’s or director’s vision. We suspend belief, for just a moment, to see things from a different angle. Does that necessarily mean we accept this new perception as truth and forget our own beliefs? Of course not!

Speaking as a Catholic who has who has both read the book and seen the movie, I can say that it has not affected my belief in my religion. I believe in the Lord, yet as a student of history, science and life, I often find myself at an awkward crossroads, trying to reconcile my faith with my education and experience. People will believe what they want to believe, so if their faith in their religion is strong, a little thing, like a movie or book, will not shatter their core values. I am in no way proselytizing, just offering a different perspective than that which has been expressed of late, and asking you to suspend your beliefs to see a different side to the story.