A powerful edict … two years too late

Exactly two years ago today, The Da Vinci Code was published. I think it’s fair to say that it’s been pretty successful, which is why I found the latest edict from the Vatican a little odd.

OK, so maybe author Dan Brown takes a few liberties.

Jesus wasn’t divine, after all; he married Mary Magdalene, a woman of possible ill repute, and they had kids. What’s the fuss?

This now-famous premise shaping Brown’s bestseller “The Da Vinci Code” has infuriated leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and led to demands from a senior Vatican official that the book be shunned.

“My appeal is as follows,” Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said this week during a Vatican Radio broadcast. “Don’t read and don’t buy ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ “

Bertone is no Vatican slouch either — he’s archbishop of Genoa a former secretary of the powerful Vatican department that enforces church doctrine.

What’s wrong with the condemnation? On the surface, not much. The church, as far as I’m concerned, can condemn anything it wants. That said, aren’t Vatican officials a little slow on this one?

The timing of Bertone’s comments, coming nearly two years after the book started flying out of stores everywhere, had a few people scratching their heads. The book has been translated into 44 languages and sold an estimated 20 million copies.

First of all, it’s pop fiction, so labeling the book as “untrue” doesn’t tell us much. Second, the Vatican ought to know by now that publicizing a book tends to help sales, not hurt them.

But forget that. The book has sold some 20 million copies, is an international phenomenon, and will soon be a blockbuster movie. It’s a little late in the game, isn’t it?