The Rome diocese has banned filming for the Da Vinci code prequel Angels & Demons from two churches in the Eternal City. The Belfast Telegraph reports Church officials have told the producers of the Ron Howard directed film that they cannot use the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria, two architectural jewels in the heart of the city that include paintings by Caravaggio, sculptures by Bernini and a chapel designed by Raphael.
A spokesman for the Roman diocese said the movie "does not conform to our views".
Permission was denied in 2007, but the ban only became public now that filming is taking place in Rome, said Mgr Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the diocese.
"It's a film that treats religious issues in a way that contrasts with common religious sentiment," he said.
"We would be helping them create a work that might well be beautiful, but that does not conform to our views."
"Normally we read the script, but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough," he said.
Mgr Fibbi said that the controversy over Dan Brown's novel and its blockbuster film version had affected the decision.
The story prompted anger and calls for boycotts by Church leaders worldwide with the idea that Jesus married and fathered children and by depicting the Catholic movement, Opus Dei as a murderous cult.
"This is a prequel to 'The Da Vinci Code' and it's clear that the theme is similar," Mgr Fibbi said. He added that the ban would not stop the crew from filming the exterior of the churches.
The Times Online quotes Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, head of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, as saying that the author had "turned the Gospels upside down to poison the faith. It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into mendacious films in the name of business."
The Vatican fiercely condemned both the novel The Da Vinci Code and its film version, which starred Tom Hanks as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon.
Hanks also stars in Angels & Demons which, like The Da Vinci Code, is directed by Ron Howard. Published before The Da Vinci Code - which suggested that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had children - Angels & Demons revolves around a plot by a sinister elite known as The Illuminati to seize control of the papacy during a conclave to elect a new Pope.
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