The Vatican renewed its attack on The Da Vinci Code on April 28, with a high-ranking official calling Catholics to boycott a forthcoming film version of the runaway best-seller.
Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and a close collaborator of Pope Benedict XVI, said the film's release, slated for May 19, would contribute to the spread of “calumny, insults and errors” about the Roman Catholic faith.
“If this was directed at the Quran or the Holocaust, it would have provoked a worldwide revolt,” Amato said. “Directed at the church and at Christians it goes unpunished.”
His salvo was the latest sign that the Vatican is stepping up its attack on works with premises it regards as heretical. The Vatican's official preacher devoted a Good Friday sermon to an attack on the film and on the media-hyped Gospel of Judas.
“I hope all of you will boycott the film,” Amato said, calling on Catholics to ignore the movie the same way many Christians abstained from watching The Last Temptation of Christ, a Martin Scorsese film based on a novel that took a similar view of Jesus' relations with Magdalene.
Dan Brown, the author, asserts that Jesus Christ fathered children with Mary Magdalene, creating a bloodline that has been persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church through the centuries.
Amato made his comments at a conference on media-church relations hosted by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, which is run by the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. The Da Vinci Code targets Opus Dei, characterizing the group as a murderous and conspiratorial force within the church.
Religion News Service