Bishops post Web site disputing “Da Vinci Code”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops took aim at “The Da Vinci Code” on Friday, launching a
Web site that disputes central points of the best-selling
novel.

The site, http://www.jesusdecoded.com, denies one point on
which the novel turns, saying the New Testament “does not offer
any support for speculation about Jesus’ being married or
having a child.”

The novel by Dan Brown centres on the idea that Jesus
married Mary Magdalene, they had children who survived and
married into a line of French kings, that the lineage continues
today and a secret society based in France aims to restore the
lineage to the thrones of Europe.

The bishops’ group said in a statement that the Web site
“presents authentic Catholic teaching about Jesus and the
origins of Christianity and corrects misinformation that
appears in current popular media.”

The site disavows the book’s notion that the Leonardo Da
Vinci work “The Last Supper” shows Mary Magdalene bending
toward Jesus.

“What this novel does to Leonardo’s Last Supper, it does to
Christianity as such,” according to the site’s introduction.
“It asks people to consider equivalent to the mainstream
Christian tradition quite a few odd claims.

“Some are merely distortions of hypotheses advanced by
serious scholars who do serious research. Others, however, are
inaccurate or false.”

In a section on the art mentioned in the novel, an art
historian wrote: “Along with trashing Christianity, Dan Brown’s
The Da Vinci Code is a veritable museum of errors where
Renaissance art is concerned.”

A copyright trial is currently under way in a London court
based on accusations that Brown borrowed research from the work
of two historians to write his book without acknowledgement.

A paperback edition of the novel is due out this month,
with a run of 5 million copies.