What is this with the "DaVinci Code"?

I understand that cautions about this novel were included in Easter sermons from both Rome and Canterbury. I, for one, cannot understand why this book had such popularity in the first place. Wondering what the fuss was about, I (a lover of history, of course, and known to enjoy historical fiction as well), I took a look at the book in a library. I barely got through 30 pages - the history and theology were so off the mark that I was becoming annoyed. Some parts may have been inside jokes, I suppose - "The Gnostic Gospels" being not a secret document from the time of Constantine but a recent book by Elaine Pagels. (Then again, the author showed little indication he knew much about Constantine or Nicaea, either.)

Of course, I am not one for detective stories (the sole exception being my collection of Jack the Ripper books and Umberto Eco's brilliant "The Name of the Rose," which is all too accurate a picture of the Middle Ages.) Yet people seem to be seeing the DaVinci Code not as a thriller in poor historical garb, but as a key to all sorts of secrets and inside information.

There is one thing for which to be grateful. At least this is an openly imaginative novel - not presented as a newly found gospel or book of secret revelations.

I was saying last week that it is unfortunate that Jesus' humanity makes many Christians uneasy. I'm afraid that 'revelations' (by which I mean visions, not his speaking through his Church at places such as Nicaea) about him can be a far worse. For example, with all due respect to Margaret Mary Alacoque, her vision of Jesus shows an effeminate whinge bag. The 'unapproved' revelations are worse still.

Then again, if Jesus gets a raw deal here, his mother tends to do far worse. The apocryphal books, for all that the influence of Gnostic, Persian, or other ideas is strong, have a certain charm. It is rot such as Mary of Agreda's "City of God" which makes me sigh. Were Mary anything like what she is in that godawful collection (four volumes, if I recall correctly), she would have been insufferable. She was allowed even less humanity than Jesus - a prissy sort who ate nothing but a few grapes, a housewife whose manual labour was performed by angels...

I would imagine the author of the DaVinci Code banked on that people cannot resist thinking they have inside, previously hidden information... and has been laughing all the way to the bank since.