Bishop attacks 'untruths' of Da Vinci Code

Bishop attacks 'untruths' of Da Vinci Code

TOM PUGH THE Archbishop of Birmingham has launched a withering attack on The Da Vinci Code ahead of the release of the film version of the blockbuster novel. The Most Rev Vincent Nichols condemned the "fanciful themes and deliberate untruths" given in the controversial book.

The novel by American author Dan Brown has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. But The Da Vinci Code was attacked for portraying the Catholic Church as a shadowy organisation that has spent 2,000 years covering up Jesus's marriage to Mary Magdalene. Members of Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic group with 86,000 members worldwide, were particularly angry about their order being depicted as a murderous, power-hungry sect. Archbishop Nichols said the book "gratuitously insults Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church". He said: "I have read [the book] from cover to cover it. It deliberately presents fiction as fact. "It distorts history, falsifies theology and gratuitously insults the person of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church." Related topic Dan Brown & The Da Vinci Code http://living.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1068

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