RNS Daily Digest: Also transmitting in `a’ category

c. 2006 Religion News Service Vatican Official Calls for Boycott of `The Da Vinci Code’ Film ROME (RNS) The Vatican renewed its attack on “The Da Vinci Code” on Friday (April 28), with a high-ranking official calling Catholics to boycott a forthcoming film version of the runaway best-seller. Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

Vatican Official Calls for Boycott of `The Da Vinci Code’ Film

ROME (RNS) The Vatican renewed its attack on “The Da Vinci Code” on Friday (April 28), with a high-ranking official calling Catholics to boycott a forthcoming film version of the runaway best-seller.


Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and a close collaborator of Pope Benedict XVI, said the film’s release, slated for May 19, would contribute to the spread of “calumny, insults and errors” about the Roman Catholic faith.

“If this was directed at the Quran or the Holocaust, it would have provoked a worldwide revolt,” Amato said. “Directed at the church and at Christians it goes unpunished.”

His salvo was the latest sign that the Vatican is stepping up its attack on works with premises it regards as heretical. The Vatican’s official preacher devoted a Good Friday sermon to an attack on the film and on the media-hyped “Gospel of Judas.”

“I hope all of you will boycott the film,” Amato said, calling on Catholics to ignore the movie the same way many Christians abstained from watching “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a Martin Scorsese film based on a novel that took a similar view of Jesus’ relations with Magdalene.

Dan Brown, the author, asserts that Jesus Christ fathered children with Mary Magdalene, creating a bloodline that has been persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church through the centuries.

Amato made his comments at a conference on media-church relations hosted by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, which is run by the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. “The Da Vinci Code” targets Opus Dei, characterizing the group as a murderous and conspiratorial force within the church, charged with suppressing Jesus’ secret blood line.

_ Stacy Meichtry

Diverse Religious Leaders March for Peace in Washington

WASHINGTON (RNS) With clasped hands and interlocked arms, dozens of religious leaders from around the world marched Thursday (April 27) to deliver a proclamation for peace.

The festivities concluded the second day of the International Prayer for Peace, a 20-year-old event that began in Assisi, Italy, at Pope John Paul II’s request. This year’s event was the first ever held in the United States, and was hosted on the campus of Georgetown University.


“It is easy to give into the idea that the only thing we can do is use force and be resigned to not understanding each other,” said Andrea Riccardi, founder of Rome’s Catholic Community of Sant’Egidio, the organizers of the event.

“We prayed not one against the other, we prayed one next to the other,” Riccardi continued. “Washington has been a very important step.”

The ceremonies ended two days of discussions by a diverse array of panelists. Topics included poverty, the AIDS epidemic, religious freedom, war and, predominantly, terrorism. Panelists ranged from an archbishop to rabbis, professors to humanitarian workers.

Following the panels came sessions of prayer. Christians attended an ecumenical service, Muslims worshipped in a university chamber and Sikhs sat on the campus lawn, singing songs and playing instruments.

From there the groups slowly marched around the campus, eventually strolling through the university’s gates and climbing an outdoor stage to deliver the summit’s proclamation of peace.

The Rev. Constance Wheeler, a Protestant minister at Georgetown, read the proclamation of peace aloud:


“We say to those who kill, to those who sow terror and make war in God’s name, “Stop! Do not kill! With violence everyone loses! Let us talk together and God will shine on us! Only peace is holy! Let us have and advocate serious, honest dialogue.”

Following the declaration, escorted children walked onstage to personally receive copies of the documents from religious leaders. And one by one the religious leaders, from Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, to Riccardi, took turns lighting a ceremonial candle and signing their name to the document.

_ Piet Levy

Book Alleges Radical Muslims Have Infiltrated France’s Airport Services

PARIS (RNS) A new book alleging that radical Muslims have infiltrated France’s airport services has sparked outrage from those who say the author mischaracterizes Muslims and distorts French intelligence reports.

Titled “Les Mosques of Roissy” _ a popular moniker for the Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris _ the book by bellicose far-right French leader Philippe de Villiers comes at a time when anti-immigration sentiments appear to be surging in France.

In his book, de Villiers asserts the Paris airport and others around France have hired Muslim extremists, some of whom allegedly have ties with terrorist groups. The head of the small Movement for France Party, de Villiers claims his book is based on information supplied by France’s Renseignements Generaux, or domestic intelligence service.

“Le Mosques de Roissy” echoes a theme that dominates de Villiers’ discourse: That Islam and France are incompatible. “It’s not Islam that adapts to France but France that adapts to Islam,” he argues of France’s second most important faith.


An estimated 5 million Muslims live in France _ Western Europe’s largest Muslim community. Many are of North African origin _ as are many employees at French airports.

Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, is among a panoply of critics to question de Villiers’ allegations, calling the book an “outrageous and extreme caricature.”

French officials say only a small percentage of airport employees harbor fundamentalist views. About 122 Muslim fundamentalists work at Charles de Gaulle out of a total airport staff of 75,000, according to intelligence officials cited by Le Monde newspaper, which points out that fundamentalists are not synonymous with terrorists.

Moreover, several media organization have also protested what they characterize as de Villiers twisting French intelligence information they had originally published.

Nonetheless, de Villiers’ messages appear to be resonating among some voters. Two recent polls find between 4 percent and 6 percent of French say they will back him in presidential elections next year.

Recent events _ notably three weeks of riots by ethnic immigrant youths last fall _ have only buttressed support for the far right, analysts say. Surveys show a large chunk of French believe the country has too many immigrants, a popular theme of de Villiers.


_ Lisa Bryant

Religious Leaders to Join Thousands in Rally for Darfur Sunday

WASHINGTON (RNS) Rabbis, ministers, evangelical leaders and Washington’s Catholic cardinal plan to take the stage on the National Mall Sunday (April 30) at a major rally urging an end to the genocide in Darfur.

Religious leaders constitute a large segment of a speakers list that also includes nearly 40 politicians, activists, actors and athletes. They span the political spectrum from conservatives like Southern Baptist Convention leader Richard Land to liberals like actor George Clooney.

“All people of conscience are united against genocide, to stop atrocities committed against innocent civilians,” said rally director Chuck Thies. “Our tent is big enough to accommodate anyone from any walk of life provided that they’re united with us.”

Organizers hope the rally will turn out to be one of the most vocal national demonstrations yet for Darfur, an embattled region of western Sudan in Africa. They expect tens of thousands of people to attend the demonstration. Other rallies are planned across North America on Sunday, Thies said, in San Francisco, Toronto, Seattle, Chicago, even Somerville, N.J., population 12,000.

The purpose, according to organizers, is to pressure the Bush administration and Congress to do more to end the violence and restore peace to Darfur. Darfur is in the midst of a three-year conflict between a government-backed Arab militia, the Janjaweed, and the non-Arab people living in the region.

More than 300,000 have died at the hands of the militia, according to the Save Darfur Coalition, the organization sponsoring the rally.


The coalition, formed in July 2004, represents more than 160 organizations. Its executive committee reflects a wide range of faiths, including the American Society for Muslim Advancement, the American Jewish World Service, the National Association of Evangelicals and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“I think it (the religious presence) is extremely important because it does speak to the consciousness of the nation,” said the Rev. John L. McCullough, executive director of Church World Service, a scheduled speaker Sunday. “For many people, their participation in the rally is an expression of their faith and their moral outrage and their concern for what is happening.”

_ Piet Levy

Islamic Charity Seeks Return of Seized Religious Pamphlets

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) An Oregon-based Islamic charity that is fighting the federal government over a warrantless eavesdropping program filed another lawsuit Thursday (April 27) seeking the return of 155 cartons of religious pamphlets seized two years ago by U.S. Treasury officials.

The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, based in Ashland, claims that the government’s refusal to release the documents and allow their dissemination violates the charity’s First Amendment rights.

In February 2004, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control seized the assets of Al-Haramain pending an investigation into whether the charity was involved in terrorism.

In September 2004, Treasury officials designated Al-Haramain a global terrorist organization, alleging it sent money to Islamic fighters in Chechnya. Al-Haramain officials have denied any wrongdoing and say the charity simply operated a prayer house and distributed Islamic literature to prisoners.


As part of the asset seizure, treasury officials removed thousands of volumes of religious literature from the group’s Ashland office, “including Qurans, written commentary on the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and other materials designed to explain Islam to both adherents and non-adherents,” the suit said.

Al-Haramain representatives have repeatedly requested the return of the literature in order to protect it from damage and to distribute it to people who want it, the suit said. At least initially, the literature was stored in an unheated, unlit room, which could have damaged it.

“Such deterioration is considered an offense against adherents to the religion,” the suit said.

Molly Millerwise, director of public affairs for the U.S. Treasury, said agency officials do not comment on lawsuits.

_ Ashbel S. Green

Quote of the Day: Timothy `T-Money’ Blackmon of Wresting for Jesus

(RNS) “I’m not going to sit here and listen to a shirt-and-tie preacher. But I might listen to a guy in spandex because he’s like me.”

_ Timothy “T- Money” Blackmon, founder of Wrestling for Jesus, a wrestling-themed evangelical Christian group based in Beech Island, S.C. He was quoted by the Associated Press.

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!