Italian Clergy Claims "Da Vinci Code" Is Obscene

Apparently, Opie has made a dirty movie.

As if there's a shortage of things in Italy to investigate, comes now to the bench a group of clergy in the seaside village of Civitavecchia clogging up the court dockets with a new complaint against The Da Vinci Code.

This time it's the movie, and the priests involved claim that it violates Article 528 of Italy's penal code, because it is "obscene" from a religious standpoint. The complaint names 10 people, including Dan Brown and director Ron Howard.

Why the case is being filed now, more than a year after the film opened all over the world, the state prosecutor said he was not sure. "I don't know, maybe they have just seen the film."

Hopefully the Italian courts have at least as firm a grip on the handlebars of jurisprudence when it comes to the clash of art and lawyers as Justice Potter Stewart did. If not, looks like Dan and Ron could be fined about 163 smackers and spend three months in a Neapolitan pokey.

Now I have no idea what "clergy" these guys are from, but if you go poking around the port of Civitavecchia, you'll come across the La Chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Orazione, the Church of St. Mary of the Oration, and home to the "Confraternity of Death."



And you thought Freemasons had peculiar rites and getups.