Present at my talk last night was a Nigerian priest who took some time to share with us the impact of DVC…in Nigeria, telling the story of a woman who spoke to him when he was there at Christmastime, asking him what it was about this book – three of her adult children had read it, been captivated, and turned away from the Church, in part, she claimed, because of the novel….

He mentioned the insanity of over 200 people dying in riots in Nigeria because of cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. But he wondered why, in this country, people were apparently allowed to write anything they wanted with no consequences (he was speaking particularly of the treatment of Opus Dei) – why there could be no lawsuits, and so on. I understand that OD was told by some to go ahead and sue when the book was published, but they declined,  – I am not sure why, but perhaps in the spirit of what this priest concluded – Christians suffer for the truth, and that’s just the way it is. Or because it would backfire, or give more weight to the book than it deserves. Their approach seems to have actually worked quite well.