In an amazing display of hypocrisy, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, mouthpiece for the Catholic Church, writes that the furor over the release of the film The Da Vinci Code was "much ado about nothing" and that the controversy surrounding the film was instigated by the producers of the film, not by the Church, AP reports.

Two months ago Catholics and Protestants and even Muslims were urging massive boycotts of the film. Protesters were marching outside theatres, carrying signs and passing out literature. Theatres were torched. Muslim countries banned the movie. Nuns and priests and even cheesy evangelical preachers were making public statements denouncing Satan for spreading Lies and Deceptions. People were writing nasty blogs about the "blasphemy" to their precious Lord and Savior. One fundamentalist pastor even re-wrote the ending of the book to have Robert Langdon repent of his sins and become a Christian.

Now that the movie has proven to be less than a cinematic success, the Church is saying, "Oh, pshaw! We never were worried about that."

I gotta call "bullsh*t!" You guys were about to wet your pants, you were so distraught.

The Vatican newspaper called the uproar leading up to the movie "probably the most gigantic marketing strategy of a book and a film seen in the last few decades."

Search this blog for "Da Vinci Code" and you'll find quite a few stories about the Church's fears about this movie, including:

• Da Vinci Code blamed for Welsh monk's suicide
• Catholics demand Da Vinci Code be labeled as fiction
• War on The Da Vinci Code
• This Week in God: The Da Vinci Code Edition
• The Da Vinci Code already sold out in Mexico, Italy and Spain
• Tom Hanks blasts Da Vinci Code critics
• Simply blasphemous! — Cathlic priests urge protests of The Da Vinci Code

...and many more.

Da Vinci Code | Catholic Church | Movie Reviews | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com