Patriarchate critical of pickets at cinemas running Da Vinci Code

MOSCOW, May 29 (Itar-Tass) -- The Moscow Patriarchate is critical of pickets in front of the cinemas that show the Da Vinci Code film. Such protests create the impression “somebody is very eager to show on television a cruel and vicious image of the Church and clergy calling for pogroms at cinema theaters,” the deputy chief of the Moscow Patriarchate’s external relations department, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, said on Monday. In his opinion irony should be the normal response. “One and all must be aware that we have before us an act of feeble impudence, futile attempts by some people to dictate their own scale of values,” the Moscow Patriarchate’s official said.