Church queries its poor image

THE success of books and films like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons should make the Catholic Church rethink the way it uses the media to present itself, the Vatican newspaper said yesterday.

The newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, ran two editorials on last Monday's premiere of Angels and Demons in Rome, ending an official institutional silence on the film.

One of the editorials, headlined "The Secret of His Success," said the Church should ask itself why such a "simplistic and partial" vision of the Church in Dan Brown's works is so successful, even among Catholics.