Christians in Cinema

News reports indicate that the Vatican, rather than calling for a ban on The Da Vinci Code sequel Angels & Demons, is advocating caution for the Church. In a statement to the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, said that “dramatizing the issue inadvertently gives publicity to Angels & Demons.”

He is absolutely correct. The firestorm of outrage generated by the Church about The Da Vinci Code when it released in May of 2006 served to do one thing: give the filmmakers international publicity worth millions of dollars for free. Any PR firm would give their eyeteeth to have the buzz that film did leading up to its opening weekend.

Box office receipts for The Da Vinci Code totaled $77 million opening weekend, and its domestic gross was $217 million. It did even better in theaters worldwide, bringing in over $541 million, for a total of $758 million.

You have to wonder how much of that was due to the curiosity aroused by the Church’s vehement stand against the film. Did they help the producers improve the box office with their streams of protest and outrage?

Last year, the Vatican refused the production company their permission to film scenes in churches in Rome for Angels & Demons because Archbishop De Paolis said, “It was an offence against God,” and that Dan Brown had “turned the Gospels upside down to poison the faith.”

Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome, said that normally they would read the script before making a decision, but knowing the novel was written by Dan Brown was enough for them to make a decision to deny permission.

Angels & Demons, rather than attacking the Gospels, incriminates a secret society called “The Illuminati,” which tries to seize control of the Papacy during a conclave to elect a new Pope. The film release about a month after Easter, which is close to the same time as The Da Vinci Code released.

[Photo courtesy Sony Pictures/Zade Rosenthal]