It get's tiresome repeating onself, but one feels obliged to do it when someone's being an idiot.
ROME (Reuters) - A top Catholic cardinal has blasted "The Da Vinci Code" as a "gross and absurd" distortion of history and said Catholic bookstores should take the bestseller off their shelves because it is full of "cheap lies."Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in an interview with the Milan newspaper Il Giornale, became the highest ranking Italian Churchman to speak out against the book, an international blockbuster that has sold millions of copies.
"(It) aims to discredit the Church and its history through gross and absurd manipulations," Bertone, the archbishop of the northern Italian city of Genoa and a close friend of Pope John Paul told the paper in its Monday edition. {...}
Let me repeat this for the umpteenth time: The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. It is not meant to be taken for fact. If you believe it portrays Christiantity poorly, well, that's your right, but to actively campaign against a work of fiction? That's just silly. And it makes you look silly, too.
Dan Brown played with the facts to create fiction. He asked what if? and went from there. He created an international bestseller that, two years after publication, the dear Cardinal claims is a threat to the Church.
Well, perhaps, dear red-beanied one, you should have gotten on the ball sooner, if it's such a threat.
Far be it from me, a practicing Catholic, to suggest that the lesson the Church should be taking from this book is that there are many people who find its message regarding femininity appealing. That maybe there should be more to being a woman in the Church than just following in the chaste footsteps of the Virgin Mary. Not that the Virgin isn't a good role model, it's just that, in this day and age, traipsing after the males and adoring them gets to be a wee bit boring.
But, again, what would I know? It's not like I have a say in it.
Posted by Kathy at March 15, 2005 11:25 PMI'm about 80% into the book right now. I am listening to it while on long drives to southern Minnesota on alternating weekends. I've never lost sight of the fact it is fiction, and am like you in observing the silliness by the dissenters as they become intimidated by this work of fiction.
Now I am told I need to read (listen) to Dan Brown's earlier book, "Angels and Demons". With a flight to Pennsylvania this weekend I may just have to finish up the one, so I can start the other!
Flash
Posted by: Flash at March 16, 2005 10:00 AMA&D is the better novel of the two Langdon works. Personally, I believe Brown dumbed down Da Vinci for the masses.
Have a safe trip!
Posted by: Kathy at March 16, 2005 10:18 AMI wonder whether Brown hit a little close to the mark, even if taking poetic license with longstanding myths about the RCC. Perhaps there are in fact some well-hidden secrets known only at the highest levels in the church?
He might very well have. He took advantage of the gray areas---which is where conspiracy theories always thrive. The Church and its attitude of secrecy has done them no favors in this regard. One of the things that Langdon whines about in A&D---not to give the plot away---is how hard it is to gain access to the Vatican Archives. He's absolutely correct. The Church is under no obligation to open that bad boy to anyone they feel will demean the Church with the end result. There's all sorts of stuff in the archives. I'd love to go trolling through there. Fascinating stuff. The Church is like the WWII Germans when it comes to keeping stuff.
Posted by: Kathy at March 16, 2005 12:13 PM