Christian Groups Wary of 'Da Vinci Code' Movie

Aug. 19, 2005 — Filming of "The Da Vinci Code," starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou, is well under way all across Europe — but not all the attention is from paparazzi and fans. In England this week, Sister Mary Michael, a 61-year-old Roman Catholic nun, prayed for 12 hours in protest outside historic Lincoln Cathedral. That's where Hanks and director Ron Howard were shooting the adaptation of a novel whose plot questions much of Christian theology, proposing that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a child. "When I die," Sister Mary Michael said, "and I have to stand before almighty God — as everyone else will, whether they believe it or not — and he says to me, 'What have you done to defend me?' I can say, 'Well, I tried to come forward at Lincoln Cathedral.' " [More]