Vatican City - A Vatican official on Friday called for a boycott of the upcoming The Da Vinci Code film, saying it contained ''slanderous'' offenses against Christianity that would provoke a worldwide revolt had they been directed against Islam or the Holocaust, an Italian news agency reported.
Monsignor Angelo Amato -- Pope Benedict XVI's former No. 2 when Benedict was head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith -- made the comments in a speech at the Pontifical Holy Cross University, which is run by the conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei, the ANSA news agency reported.
''I hope all of you boycott this film,'' the agency quoted Amato as saying. He said the film, based on the best-selling novel by Dan Brown, was full of ``offenses, slander, historical and theological errors concerning Jesus, the Gospel and the Church.''
''Slander, offenses and errors that if they were directed toward the Koran or the Shoah, would have justifiably provoked a worldwide revolt,'' ANSA quoted him as saying. Yet because they were directed toward the Catholic Church, they remain 'unpunished,' '' he said.
Church officials have spoken out repeatedly against the novel and the upcoming film adaptation, which stars Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou and is scheduled for release May 19.
In the novel, Jesus is believed to have married Mary Magdalene and had descendants, and Opus Dei, which is close to the Vatican, and the Catholic Church are at the center of a conspiracy to cover it up.
Last year, Italian cardinal Tarcisio Bertone -- Amato's predecessor at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- called for a boycott of the book.
However, Opus Dei, which is portrayed as a murderous, power-hungry sect in the novel, has specifically refrained from publicly calling for a boycott of the film, aware that bitter criticism of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ helped popularize that movie.
Opus Dei has, however, asked Sony to put a disclaimer on the movie saying it is a work of fantasy. Sony hasn't responded, but its spokesmen have repeatedly said the company views The Da Vinci Code as a work of fiction.