Da Vinci Code: fiction shakes faith

DAN BROWN’S novel The Da Vinci Code is just that — a novel, a volume of fiction by a very good fiction writer.

Mr Brown is not a theologian; he writes fiction for a living, to help pay the mortgage and send the kids to college.

However, since its publication, this book has been the cause of intense debate. Now, with the release of the film based on the book, the debate flares up again. Even the Vatican, to my dismay and more than a little amusement, has entered the fray. The Vatican — that seat of learning and wisdom and bastion of male infallibility — is so unsure of its ground now it is suggesting that all Catholics should boycott this film.