Santa María Magdalena y el "Código Da Vinci"

Ayer, 22 de julio, se celebraba la fiesta de santa María Magdalena. Y como se trata de una figura que en el "Código Da Vinci" viene presentada con (digamos) peculiares rasgos, los Obispos de Inglaterra y Gales han querido festejar el dia inaugurando un sitio web ("Freebies for The Da Vinci Code enthusiasts") dedicado a la Magdalena.

Interesante iniciativa, dado que quizá hay mucho lector de ese libro que no sabe quién fue esta María de Magdala, aunque piense conocerla a través de las páginas salidas de la inefable exactitud histórica de Dan Brown. El comunicado de prensa (que se puede descargar aquí), previamente distribuído con embargo, anuncia las razones de esta iniciativa y el contenido de la página:

"A web page containing links to free resources about St Mary Magdalene and The Da Vinci Code has been published by a national office of the Catholic Church.

(...) An important part of Catholic life is the veneration of saints; who are ordinary men and women who are honoured because of the extraordinary ways in which they loved God and their neighbour. The late Pope John Paul II made more people saints during his Pontificate than any of his predecessors. Each year one feast day is set aside for each saint. Today is the feast day of St Mary Magdalene who is remembered as one of the first followers of Jesus. Clare Ward works at the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation and said: “St Mary Magdalene plays an important part in Catholic life. She has a very prominent role in the New Testament part of the Bible. The claims made about her in Dan Brown’s book have been the source of heated discussion which many argue are fiction and a distortion of the facts. In a positive sense, what the book does reveal however is a widespread thirst for the truth. It’s at this level that the initiative of the Catholic Enquiry Office can be of service to the novel’s enthusiasts. Ultimately, the source of all truth is found in a person - Jesus Christ.

The Catholic Enquiry Office’s web page can be found at: http://www.life4seekers.co.uk/TheDaVinciCode-resources.htm

Interesante iniciativa de comunicación institucional. Algo así entiende Stephen Bates de The Guardian, cuando comenta la noticia diciendo que en esta ocasión, "in England and Wales it now appears to have decided that if you can't beat it, you should at least exploit it". Porque así muchos lectores del libro podrán establecer la identidad de santa María Magdalena, que casualmente coincide en el nombre con el curioso personaje mencionado por Dan Brown. Nuevos carbones encendidos se acumulan sobre su cabeza, a propósito de la pertinacia de este autor sobre la "accuracy" histórica de su escrito. ¶