Thursday, August 18, 2005
MOTORBIKE RIDING NUN PROTESTS FILMING OF DA VINCI CODE
LINCOLN (Reuters) - Sister Mary Michael is no killjoy. Only the other day the 61-year-old Catholic nun was riding around on the back of a motorbike.
But her sense of fun does not extend to "The Da Vinci Code", a film based on the Dan Brown best-seller and starring Tom Hanks that is being filmed this week at the towering Gothic cathedral in her home city of Lincoln, eastern England.
The sister staged a 12-hour prayer vigil to protest at the decision by the building's custodians to let director Ron Howard use it in his movie of the novel, which has angered the Vatican by suggesting Jesus was married and had children.
"It seems to be an attack on the very tenets of the faith," Sister Mary Michael, dressed in a brown habit and pale blue veil, said of the story by the U.S. novelist.
"I was a little afraid that this might bring some disrepute and some badness to the city," she told Reuters at the small red-brick apartment she uses as a Christian community centre.
"I love this city and I love the people and I didn't want anything bad to happen."
The sister protested on Monday outside the cathedral of pale yellow stone, which perches atop a steep hill of cobbled streets, as the building became a film set complete with scaffolding, giant lights and large trucks parked outside.
Go to the website to read the motivation behind the decision to allow the cathedral to be used. Hint--it's all about $. I guess even God is for sale if the price is right.
