Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented today on an A&E documentary based on the work of Simon Cox, author of Illuminating Angels and Demons: The Unauthorized Guide to the Facts Behind the Fiction:
“Beginning the day before ‘The Da Vinci Code’ opened, A&E has thrice aired a documentary, ‘Illuminating Angels and Demons,’ that is replete with lies about the Catholic Church; the next airing is tomorrow.
“Drawing on the work of a Dan Brown wannabee, Simon Cox, the viewer learns that Peter was the first person to see the resurrected Jesus (he wasn’t—it was Mary Magdalene); the Vatican existed in the Fourth Century (it didn’t exist until a 1000 years later ); there are ‘hidden gospels’ buried in the Vatican that could be used to destroy the Church (the innocuous books can be found online); Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist (he’s got it backwards); the Church is anti-science (no institution has contributed more to science than the Catholic Church); the Church ‘would still kill Galileo today’ (no one—not even an albino monk—killed him); and so on.
“Had A&E accessed serious scholars, these embarrassing errors would have been avoided. Instead, they relied on amateurs and charlatans.
“While we can’t be exactly sure what’s possessing A&E these days, the signs are ominous. Better call on the services of an exorcist, just to be sure.”
