Cardinal sees ignorance, media hype in Da Vinci Code

PARIS, May 15 (Reuters) The popularity of The Da Vinci Code is a shocking indication of both mass ignorance and the ''voluptuous pleasure'' the media take in promoting works with no basis in truth, the Vatican's culture minister said today.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told Europe 1 radio he had no objection to people seeing the film if they understand it is fiction, but many would watch this ''nonsense'' and think that it was true.

The film of the best-selling novel, which says Jesus had a child with Mary Magdelene and the Roman Catholic Church hushed this up, debuts at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

Poupard is the Vatican's highest authority on cultural issues after the Pope.

''This is a shocking and worrying cultural phenomenon that reflects, on the one hand, the ignorance of millions of people and, on the other, the voluptuous pleasure the media take in promoting products that have nothing to do with the truth,'' the French-born cardinal, 75, told the Paris radio station.

He noted that the mass media showed no interest in an extensive Dictionary of Religions he edited with contributions from many leading experts in the field.

''If a product that mixes up claims made as fact, fiction and so on, and comes out with elucubrations that have no relation to history, the whole world's media promote it,'' he said.

Elucubrations are laboriously written scholarly works.

''If it is clear this has nothing to do with truth and it amuses you to go see it, why not?'' he said when asked if moviegoers should boycott the film starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou.

In the past several weeks Vatican cardinals have urged everything from a full-blown boycott of the film by Catholics to legal action against both the novel and the film.

Poupard did not back those stands but expressed concern about the effects it could have on the ordinary Catholics.

''What I'm concerned about is that decent people who do not have the proper religious education will take this nonsense for the real thing,'' said the cardinal, who has headed the Pontifical Council for Culture since 1988.

Asked if he would go see the film, Poupard said: ''I don't plan to, because life is short and I have a lot of things to do.

I have so many friends who have described this nonsense to me that I don't have time for that.'' REUTERS SHB BST1613