They themselves have called this "operation lemonade" . . .

making a pleasant drink out of a bitter lemon. With a shot of Paddy added, it could be a very pleasant drink, a bit scandalous, but very nice indeed.

Terri Carron, Opus Dei's US spokesperson . . . what's this about repressed and oppressed women in Opus Dei? . . . has said that, as far as the organisation is concerned, it would be better if they didn't have to be dealing with this book.

"Obviously, " she said, "Opus Dei members would be far happier if Opus Dei was never mentioned in The Da Vinci Code, especially in such an unpleasant, negative way.

But on the positive side, this has really given us an opportunity to explain what Opus Dei is." You can see her on www. opusdei. ie.

If the definition of scandal is something that occasions outrage, indignation or opprobrium, there is no doubt but that there is plenty of that in the book as far as Opus Dei members are concerned. This scandal concerns the organisation itself, the Catholic Church of which it is a fully fledged constituent part . . . and no "sect" . . . and Jesus Christ to whom they and all Christians are committed in the deepest possible way.

There is also little doubt that it is nice to be given the opportunity to explain yourself and to have people ready to listen to your explanation. And why are they listening? They are listening because Dan Brown has aroused their curiosity in a way that has never happened before. Two years ago, the Opus Dei official website was registering about 200,000 hits per year. We were reasonably happy with that.

Now it is registering about three million. Thank you, Dan Brown. Indeed, if Opus Dei were the kind of organisation which gave honorary membership, I think Mr Brown would be on my list of nominations.

The fact is that The Da Vinci Code is one of those phenomena which you sometimes find in the literary and film world . . . a work which is so bad, it is good. I have yet to read a review of this book which has not found it appallingly written, outrageously inaccurate in all sorts of fields, and utterly mystifying as to what the secret ingredient is which has produced its incredible sales.

What it has done for Opus Dei is that it has taken all the myths which have accumulated around it and has reset and embellished them. The end result is that Opus Dei is now being asked to explain what it really is . . .

because, rightly so, no one seems to think that it could be anything like the gross and nightmarish organisation depicted in the novel. It's not the ideal starting point for explaining yourself, but it has the undoubted advantage that you have everyone listening.

But why take such a trashy novel seriously at all, Ryan Tubridy asked an Opus Dei member on radio last week?

There are at least two good reasons. Firstly, prompted by the novel, people are asking questions and it is great to be able to answer them . . . not only about Opus Dei, but about the Catholic Church and Jesus Christ.

Secondly, misinformation is a serious business and false myths can do lots of damage.

The utter confusion of fact and fiction in The Da Vinci Code is at a level seldom seen before and probably never seen in something distributed on this scale.

A US historian, Prof Harvard Sitkoff of the University of New Hampshire, read a paper on 'Oliver Stone as Historian' in Galway a few years ago. He spoke of the impact made by Stone's film JFK. Prior to its release, 31% of Americans believed that some kind of a conspiracy was behind Kennedy's assassination.

After Stone's film had done the rounds, the percentage of those believing in a conspiracy rose to over 70%.

Did they have any basis for this belief? Nothing other than what was contained in the film. Yet a detailed examination of Stone's film reveals a tapestry of falsehoods . . . fake documentary footage, fictional characters presented as historical, and historical characters and incidents twisted to suit the case Stone wanted to make . . .

that there was a vast conspiracy behind the assassination.

In a column in The Daily Telegraph last week, Paul Bentley said he had conducted his own little survey about Dan Brown's book among 100 friends and acquaintances. He was appalled to find that 43 of them believed Dan Brown's figure of five million women burned at the stake by the Catholic Church because they were witches. Half of them believed that the notion of Christ being God was an invention of Emperor Constantine's. Lastly, 49 of them believed that Opus Dei has in fact ordered its members to commit murder.

OK, this is not exactly a scientific survey. But it does suggest serious misinformation.

Small wonder that Opus Dei wants to set a few records straight and sort out the distortions in all the myths which have been landed at its door.