If you read the book you know it is an exciting mystery, set in spectacular Rome. Professor Robert Langdon works with the Catholic Church to stop a vicious attack on the Vatican. If it were anti-Catholic, one would expect Langdon to be the one attacking the Vatican, rather than defending it.
Be that as it may, the important point that Donahue and his kind seem to miss is that this is a work of fiction. Whether the Illuminati ever existed or not is beside the point. (Is it important that the Jedi never existed?) It is an intriguing mystery; in my humble opinion, better than the DaVinci Code. It is not a history of Catholicism or the Vatican, and the readers are well aware of that.
Mr. Donahue, who uses the Catholic League as his podium, wants to tell Catholics what to read and what to see. That is an insult to any conscientious Catholic. Does he think we are incapable of making informed decisions? Does he want issue a new Index of Forbidden Books?
Perhaps the whole concept of the Catholic League has outlived its usefulness. Historically there was a time when anti-Catholicism had wide appeal in the US, and like other religious groups, the Catholic Church felt the need to defend itself with an anti-defamation league. All organizations tend to perpetuate themselves although their original raison d' etre no longer exists. Now that there seems to be little need for this anti-defamation league, Mr. Donahue seems to be intent on perpetuating the Catholic League by turning it into an institution that tells Catholics what to think. Just what we need; someone else telling us what to think. After all, we have talk radio for that.
The Office of Film and Broadcast (successor to the Legion of Decency) has made a point of clarifying the point that The Catholic League "is not an official agency of the church." Dr. Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats, points out that "Bill Donohue's perpetual bullying serves to remind us that he has no official capacity in the Catholic Church. The crudeness of the criticism he levels every week at the millions of Catholics who support Senator Obama is the starkest illustration of the fact that Bill Donohue speaks for no one but himself." (6/10/2009). The People for the American Way list The Catholic League among "Right Wing Organizations."
A Jesuit priest, James Martin, an assistant editor of the Catholic magazine, America, writes, "Often their criticism is on target, but frequently [The Catholic League] speaks without seeing or experiencing what they are critiquing, and that undercuts their credibility. Unfortunately, that type of response gives people the idea that the Catholic Church is unreflective."
Except for Bill Donohue, who receives $340'000 a year to tell us what to think, I suspect the rest of us Catholics would be better off without The Catholic League.
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