Well, here’s the boffo box office news on the Da Vinci Code’s opening weekend: Not surprisingly “The book’s fervent popularity meant that Sony could sit back while the clamoring of fans and protesters did much of the publicity work—condemnation from the Vatican and other religious groups only played into Code‘s mystique…” (my emphasis) No kidding.… Continue reading

A.N. Wilson on seeing the over-hyped movie: There are no good Catholics in this film. The monk-murderer is the militant representative of an Catholic organisation that is portrayed as fraudulent and malignant. In a free society, we are entitled to portray Catholics as we please, and to debate their faith. As I have already hinted,… Continue reading

In Rome, the Rev. John Wauck muses on what excellent opportunities a better writer than Dan Brown would’ve exploited: In the nave of the Church of St. Mary Magdalen there are six statues – all women, each representing a different feminine attribute: lacrimabilis, simplex, verecunda, humilis, fidelis and … secreta. I thought to myself: how… Continue reading

With characteristic good humor, Ed Brayton asks: “When did Pat [Buchanan] turn into the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live?” About 15 years ago, in my opinion….

Still more conservatives are waking up to the fraudulence of ‘Intelligent Design’. If the collapse of ID represents a defeat for the Religious Right, it has been something of a relief for many nonreligious conservatives, who have wanted nothing more than for the issue to go away. Charles Krauthammer, for instance, complained that the Dover… Continue reading