THE VATICAN STRIKES BACK

In a move sure to encouraged conspiratorially minded everywhere, Catholic Cardinal Bertone took a swipe at the The Da Vinci Code:

"Don't read it, and above all, don't even buy 'The Da Vinci Code,'" Bertone, the archbishop of Genoa, said on Vatican radio....

"Anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice," he said.

"I ask myself if a similar book was written, full of lies about Buddha, Muhammed or ... if a novel came out which manipulated all the history of the Holocaust or of the Shoah, what would have happened?"

I don't usually take my marching orders from the Vatican, but I do agree with him about supporting garbage like that. I wanted a copy of the book recently, however, in view of addressing it in a sermon. My solution was to find one for a couple of bucks at a thrift store. I don't intend for Dan Brown to get any of my money.