Word on Fire is brought to you by Catholic cemeteries, serving the Chicago area since 1837.

This is Cardinal Francis George, and I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to reflect with Father Robert Baron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire.

Father Baron will challenge us to open our hearts to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us.

If our hearts are open, the Lord can change and transform us who we might speak with love about the one who is love.

The Archdiocese of Chicago, through the generosity of Sacred Heart Parish and Winnetka, now presents the Word on Fire.

Peace be with you, friends, today and next week I'm going to do something that I rarely do, and that is to depart from the scriptures for the day,

and talk in this homily about something else. And the something else you might have guessed is the Da Vinci code.

Now again, I'm reluctant to do it. The homily is really for the explication of the scriptures, but there's something about this phenomenon.

And that's of course what it is. It's a phenomenon that I think is calling for the response of the church.

Something we'll say, of course, we should just ignore it. Ignore this book, ignore the movie.

The church looks defensive inappropriately so when it responds.

Well, I agree that if an attack on the church's trivial, it's being mouthed by a few people off on the margins.

Or if let's say in the rarefied halls of academia, a few people are debating issues.

The church is probably best advised to avoid it or ignore it.

But let's face it, the Da Vinci code in hardcover has sold 50 million copies.

That's staggering, almost unprecedented. And now the paperback is out. That'll sell how many millions more.

And it's now beginning this weekend, a major motion picture.

Countless millions more will see it in movie form.

And this book and movie contain a frontal assault on Christianity.

This is not a trivial attack, not something looking at the margins. This is a frontal attack and tens of millions of people.

Maybe half this country will be exposed to it.

I think that warrants a response on the part of the church.

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