daVinci Code beef

As most of you who know me know, I have a big beef with the novel The DaVinci Code not the least of which is how freely it uses "facts" (like did you know that it wasn't until 300 AD at the Council of Nicea--or was it Constantinople?--that we finally got around to proclaiming Jesus' divinity, and that we essentially made it up? Didn't think so.). But now I read that Brown's book was the start of a new genre of "fact-based fiction" books, at least according to a book publisher on msnbc.com the other day. HOGWASH. If someone can find me one ostentible "fact" in the book that's actually true and in accordance with Christian and Catholic doctrine, I'll admit it. And I mean a real fact, not just Jesus existed or something like that. I'm hoping that even Dan Brown didn't mess too much with the basic stuff. But my feeling is that Mr. Brown seriously went against the obligation of the author. When you are setting a fictional story in place with historical facts and settings, you must be faithful to your facts so that you don't lead people off. By portraying the Catholic Church as a devilishly secret institution pole-bent on lying to us all about Jesus, to the idea that Mary Magdalen and Christ were married (don't Protestants even reject that notion?), Brown's book would've been on the Vatican's banned book list back in the day. I wish we still had that list so we could ban it now. Sigh.