Cardinal's plea: Don't read
'Da Vinci Code'

VATICAN CITY - The cardinal leading the Vatican’s charge against The Da Vinci Code urged Catholics on Wednesday to shun it like rotten food and branded the bestseller “a sack full of lies” insulting the Christian faith.

In an interview with Reuters inside the Vatican, Cardinal Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone also said Catholic bookstores should take the thriller off their shelves and accused U.S. author Dan Brown of “deplorable” behavior.

The novel is an international murder mystery centered on attempts to uncover a secret about the life of Christ that a clandestine society has tried to protect for centuries.

“Don’t buy this. Don’t read this because this is rotten food,” said Bertone, the highest ranking Catholic churchman to speak out against the blockbuster.

“A lot of novels do good but this book is rotten food ... it does harm, not good,” Bertone said in the 30-minute interview in the offices of the Vatican’s doctrinal department.

'Sack full of lies'
“This book is a sack full of lies against the Church, against the real history of Christianity and against Christ himself,” said Bertone, archbishop of northern Genoa.

The central tenet of the book is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children. Christians are taught that Jesus never married, was crucified and rose from the dead.

“We can’t keep quiet about the truth when faced with all the lies and all the inventions in this book,” Bertone said.

“Some of the gross falsehoods include the treatment of the death and the resurrection of Christ, which is the central mystery of Christianity,” he said.

His comments are significant because he is close to Pope John Paul and until 2003 was deputy head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s most powerful office.

Speaking as one of the Church’s top theologians, he said the book sows doubts and dangerous confusion among the faithful.

A central story line in the book is that the Holy Grail is not the cup which Christ is said to have used at the Last Supper but the bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

“I would ask the author of this book and similar ones to be more respectful because freedom of expression has limits when it does not respect others,” he said.

'Deplorable' behavior for a writer
“I deplore this behavior ... Great writers did not behave this way,” he said.

On his Web site, Brown rejects anti-Christian charges, saying the novel explores “certain aspects of Christian history that interest me.”

MORE FROM WORLD NEWS

World news Section Front

Report: 3 bomb-rigged cars explode in Baghdad Defense Secretary Gates visits Afghanistan Jobs, not Taliban, concern Afghan town Mullen: Surge will increase casualties Deadly bomb blasts rock Pakistani city Climate talks open with pressure on U.S. Iranian forces clash with protesters U.S. missile kills 3 in Pakistan tribal area Turkish official says 7 soldiers killed in ambush 8 killed in China school stampede World news Section Front   Add World news headlines to your news reader: