Rome vs The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown's anti-Christian novel the Da Vinci Code is continuing to draw fire from it's critics. The Roman Catholic Church has been sharply critical of the book's obvious agenda and the shocking distortions and outright historical falsehoods employed to that end. The latest blast from Rome is below...

Vatican prelate ponders legal action on Da Vinci Code
Posted on Thu May 04 2006:



Rome, May. 05 (CWNews.com) - With the film version of The Da Vinci Code scheduled to open in two weeks, Vatican officials have stepped up their criticism of novelist Dan Brown's work.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, said that Christians should not be silent in the face of blasphemy and public attacks on the faith. He recommended practical responses to the falsehoods presented in the novel, possibly including legal action against the author.

"There are some other religions which, if you insult their founder, will not just be talking," the Nigerian cardinal observed, in an interview with the Rome Reports television agency. He spoke as part of a documentary the agency prepared on The Da Vinci Code, entitled "A Masterful Deception."

While conceding that Brown has a knack for holding readers' attention, Cardinal Arinze said that his novel deliberately presents a false image of the faith. He suggested that Christian should protect their own rights, in the face of an anti-Christian attack. Too often, the cardinal said, the enemies of the faith exploit the Christian willingness to offer "pardon and love for those who insult us." Cardinal Arinze's comments came a week after Archbishop Angelo Amato, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called for a boycott of the Da Vinci Code film. The Italian prelate charged that the movie, like the book, would be "full of calumnies, offenses, and historical and theological errors." Still earlier, on April 14, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher for the pontifical household, had denounced authors who profit by recycling old anti-Catholic legends. Although Father Cantalamessa did not mention names, he clearly had The Da Vinci Code in mind.

Dan Brown's novel will be on the agenda for discussion next week at a conference on Catholicism and literature, organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture in cooperation with the Italian Treccani Institute. The focus of the conference is fantasy literature, and in addition to Christian fantasy novelists like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the participants will discuss the recent success of the Harry Potter books and The Da Vinci Code and the "media phenomena" surrounding those works.