Opus Dei leader: 'some good may come from Da Vinci Code'

The head of Opus Dei, Monsignor Javier Echevarria , said on Friday he believes some good may come from the Da Vinci Code film - even though it depicts the Church in such a bad light.

The movie version of Dan Brown's runaway best-selling novel opens in France on Wednesday, May 17, which happens to be the 14th anniversary of the day John Paul II beatified Opus Dei's founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer.

Mgr Echevarria told the Milan daily paper Corriere della Sera that the book could only be taken seriously by the very naive. He contended that Opus Dei came under attack because of the organization's "attachment to the Pope, our loyalty to the church, our rigour for the orthodoxy of faith."

Mgr Echevarria was interviewed by Vittorio Messori, who co-authored John Paul's best-selling book 'Crossing the Threshold of Hope."

He said that Opus Dei's website has had a huge increase in visitors lately, and that the group "has taken advantage of a good opportunity" from the negative image the book gives of it.

"For us who believe in Providence, there isn't any apparent evil which does not reveal itself to be in reality a good thing," Mgr Echevarria concluded.

MILAN - 15 May 2006 - 213 words