The Catholic League has launched a major attack on the upcoming film, “Angels & Demons.” It is based on the book by that name by Dan Brown, the author who pennedThe Da Vinci Code. The movie opens May 15.
Joining Brown in his latest anti-Catholic assault is director Ron Howard. Both producers are back, as well: John Calley, who admitted that “The Da Vinci Code” was anti-Catholic, and Brian Grazer, who has said that he hopes “Angels & Demons” is less reverential than their previous venture.
“Angels & Demons,” like “The Da Vinci Code,” is strewn with myths, lies and smears about the Catholic Church. Both are a curious blend of fact and fiction, and in both instances the tag team of Brown-Howard paints the Catholic Church in the worst possible light. To combat the movie, Bill Donohue has written a booklet, “Angels & Demons: More Demonic Than Angelic.”
“Angels & Demons” alleges there is a secret society, the Illuminati, which is angry at the Catholic Church because of its purportedly anti-science bent. Originally claiming Galileo as one of its members, the group seeks to blow up the Vatican. The protagonist, Harvard professor Robert Langdon, is out to get them before the time bomb explodes.
The book, and perhaps the movie, is entertaining. But it is also malicious. To intentionally distort the historical record as a means to discredit Catholicism is morally indefensible. For example, Galileo died almost 150 years before the Illuminati were founded in 1776. Yet Brown and Howard say “it is a historical fact” that the Illuminati were formed in the 1600s. They say this because they need to justify trotting out their favorite martyr, Galileo, to beat up on the Catholic Church.
The portrayal of Catholicism as anti-science is bunk. Had it not been for the Catholic Church, the universities would have died during the Middle Ages. Had it not been for the Catholic Church, the Scientific Revolution would never have happened. After all, science did not take root in South America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia. It took place in Christian Europe.
Brown-Howard, as well as others associated with the film, can say all they want that they are not anti-Catholic. The booklet has devastating evidence to the contrary.
Our goal is not to call for a boycott of the movie, but to educate the public about the Brown-Howard agenda. That’s why we unloaded so early—to alert the public to the game they’re playing.
