Catholic League slams 'Angels & Demons' filmmakers

Donohue accuses producers of 'smearing' Church

The Irish-American head of the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, has lashed out at the makers of the new Tom Hanks movie, “Angles & Demons,” accusing its makers of “inventing a story about the Catholic Church so they can smear it.”

Bill Donohue, whose organization says it defends Catholics’ civil rights and their religion against defamation, accused Dan Brown and director Ron Howard of creating a dangerous mixture of fact, fiction and conspiracy theory.

“They promote the legend that the Catholic Church is anti-science and anti-reason,” Donohue told IrishCentral.

The movie, based on the book by "Da Vinci Code" writer Dan Brown, features a secret society of intellectuals called the Illuminati, who were once persecuted by the Catholic Church centuries ago, and who are seeking revenge through a plot to bomb the Vatican.

While there is an historical record of a group called the Illuminati, who were established in a German university in the 18^th Century, there is no evidence to suggest that they were persecuted by the Catholic Church. The Illuminati are the source of numerous outlandish conspiracy theories.

Donohue rejected the suggestion that the average viewer would realize that the film is a work of fiction.

“The problem is that there is no distinction between fact and fiction. It’s a very slippery genre, and the average viewer doesn’t discern the difference.”

Donohue said that that if a movie were to be made about the infamous anti-Semitic book, “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” Jews would be rightly outraged.

“Hollywood would never make a movie about the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ and it wouldn’t matter a whit if it was made on the grounds that it was nothing but fiction. What would matter is that a film version of this slanderous anti-Jewish tract might promote intolerance. 

“There are certain people Hollywood won’t offend,” Donohue said. “Catholics are the exception.”

Although Donohue said that he didn’t think that “Angels & Demons” would incite hatred to Catholics in a way that a movie about the “Protocols” would, he said that it “would prejudice people in their thinking about the Catholic Church and its contribution to science.”

Donohue also pointed out that an assassin character who is a Muslim in the novel is not a Muslim in the movie – “once again, we have the protected classes,” Donohue said.

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Nster.com