Free Republic

A vandal or vandals spray-painted words from "The Da Vinci Code" on the front doors of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church on Main Street late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.A groundskeeper at the church discovered the graffiti around 11 a.m. Wednesday and was visibly disheartened.A funeral was scheduled to take place at the church in the afternoon.The message sprayed in black paint read, "So DARK the con of man." That same message is a clue in the plot of "The Da Vinci Code," the best-selling novel by Dan Brown that has been made into a movie.The grafitti also included...

A reader of the Window wrote asking me to explain why I found The Da Vinci Code anti-Catholic. That's a fair question, since as she pointed out, I didn't supply any examples.Anyone doubting my word can consult the film's co-producer, John Calley. He told The New York Times (9/7/2005) that the movie was "conservatively anti-Catholic" but not "destructively so."   I wonder if Mr. Calley sought any expert opinions on what would be destructive to the Church, or if he considered himself qualified to make that call. Why did he reject the request for a disclaimer at the beginning of...

THE DA VINCI CODE - BLASPHEMY HITS THE BIG SCREEN By Don Feder Posted May 19, 2006 The Da Vinci Code -- which opened today -- might be subtitled "Religion for Morons" or "Gnosticism Meets The New Age." It's fantasy posing as reality. The Sony Pictures film is blasphemous, defames the Catholic Church, and promotes neo-pagan Goddess worship. I find it offensive, and I'm not even a Christian. Director Ron Howard (who specializes in visual candy) assures us that Opie's opus will be true to the novel - a pretentious, overwritten piece of trash that makes Bridget Jones's Diary look...

Lost in all the brouhaha about "The Da Vinci Code" is a simple observation that seems to have gotten lost with all the protests and condemnations and threats of boycotts. It's just not very good. I'm a latecomer to this whole kerfuffle. Blissfully oblivious to the controversy, I didn't even know what the book was about until a couple of weeks ago, when I picked it up to kill some time on a long airplane flight. I wasn't more than 20 pages into Dan Brown's thriller when I realized what a woofer it was going to be. Readable? You betcha....