Front of Roman church covered by publicity for film
Posted on 04/25/2006 6:07:28 AM PDT by NYer
Front of Roman church covered by publicity for film
(ANSA) - Rome, April 24 - Catholic authorities in Rome are outraged by a decision to display a huge advertisement for the forthcoming film The Da Vinci Code on the facade of a church in the city's centre .
The new ad, one of many popping up around Rome, is attached to scaffolding erected in order to complete restoration work on the church of San Pantaleo, near the main thoroughfare of Corso Vittorio Emmanuele .
The restoration work is being paid for by the Italian interior ministry, which presumably came to an agreement with the film's promoters on the advertisement.
Clearly unhappy, parish priest Father Adolfo Garcia Duran was tightlipped about the situation on Monday, saying only: "We've asked for it to be removed. We're waiting." But Monsignor Marco Frisina, a top official at the headquarters of the Rome diocese, or 'vicariato', had no trouble expressing his horror at the turn of events .
"The Da Vinci Code is a clever piece of commercial exploitation. Fine. But sticking a huge advertisement on the facade of a church is a blatant provocation," he said. "In front of a church in the historical centre! They'll soon be putting them on the front of the vicariato". The Dan Brown bestseller which spawned the film has been lambasted in Catholic circles because of its largely negative portrayal of the Vatican and the conservative Catholic Opus Dei movement .
It depicts the Catholic Church as a corrupt organisation determined to hide certain explosive truths and contains the notion that Jesus Christ married and had descendants. A key character is a crazed albino monk who commits a murder .
The film, due to be released worldwide next month, is expected to rake in millions of dollars for its makers .
"We ask that at least places of worship be respected and that the choice of the publicity be agreed with the parish priest," Msgr Frisina said
The Divinci Code is just fiction, folks. Don't get carried away.
Could you see anyone, ever, trying this with a mosque?
"The Divinci Code is just fiction, folks. "
So was the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Fiction, yes. But so is the false advertising that is being emplyed by artificially linking the movie to this cathedral.
I'm missing something here. Isn't the advertisement on a Catholic church? Why can't the priest or someone else higher up in the church's hierarchy order it to be removed.
Yeah, but this is pretty tacky. Next thing you know they will start letting in money changers again.
The advertisement is on scaffolding placed in front of the church. "The restoration work is being paid for by the Italian interior ministry, which presumably came to an agreement with the film's promoters on the advertisement."
"The Da Vinci Code" is an excellent yarn. There are several more out there that are also pretty good stories; "The Last Templar", "Tears for the Assassin", "Secret Supper"; all of them in the same genre as Da Vinci, and all just works of Fiction.
Now I do understand and respect those whose deep religious beliefs, especially among the Catholic Church, view these books as heresy. IMHO, it would be heretical to treat these stories as somehow debunking the Holy Scriptures, and I certainly do not.
I'll bet that the movie is pretty good entertainment too; but I'm not about to renounce my Christian beliefs just because I go and see it.
I see similarities between this tempest in a teapot, and the one that still swirls around Harry Potter (in some circles). Remember the debate about JK Rowlings leading children straight into hell by "teaching them about witchcraft"??
Enjoy your popcorn...
well i honestly dont know why everyone is getting in a tizzy about this book...i read it and as i have said before...if it made u question your faith, you didnt have much to begin with...
also the last half of the book is laughable it is that bad...
For those who want to do more reading on the subject, Dr. Erwin Lutzer's DaVinci Deception is a good read. Lutzer is the pastor at Moody Church in Chicago.
Yes, intelligent individuals know this. The mainstream media and press have not focused on the fiction aspect, however. In every discussion, the subject is usually focused on Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Like National Geographic's expose of the Gospel of Judas, the media focused on its authenticity and NOT on its heresy.
So was the Satanic Verses. But if it were made into a movie, I doubt if anybody would be deliberately inflammatory enought to put a big ad for it on the scaffolding for restoration work being performed on a mosque.
Call it fiction, but it is still blaspheme to Christians.
THE PROTOCOLS OF WHAT? Never heard of it.
It's not blasphemy, it's bull****. The problem is that too many people are way too gullible and believe crap like the DaVinci Code.
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