Archbishop Amato argued that the gross misrepresentation of Catholic beliefs and institutions in The Da Vinci Code would not be tolerated by other religious faiths. He said that Christians should be more vigorous in responding to "hatred and gratuitous defamation." The success of the novel by American author Dan Brown, he said, is due in large part to the "extreme cultural poverty" of many Christians, who are not prepared to recognize and reject anti-Christian propaganda.

With the film version of Brown's book due to appear in theaters around the world on May 19, Archbishop Amato suggested that a boycott could be effective. He said that in 1988, a boycott was successful in cutting revenues of The Last Temptation of Christ, the film by Martin Scorsese, which the archbishop described as "extremely annoying" and "historically false" in its representation of the Passion.

I'm gonna have to read the book just so people stop frowning at me whenever I try to discuss it, but I'm trying to acquire a copy in some way that doesn't show up on the circ records of a library or pays some bookseller. Anyone have suggestions?