Wait a minute…aren't the conservatives supposed to be the ones against frivolous lawsuits?

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - In the latest Vatican broadside against "The Da Vinci Code," a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called "The Da Vinci Code-A Masterful Deception."

Arinze's appeal came some 10 days after another Vatican cardinal called for a boycott of the film. Both cardinals asserted that other religions would never stand for offences against their beliefs and that Christians should get tough.

"Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget," Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specializing in religious affairs.

"Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others," Arinze said.

"This is one of the fundamental human rights: that we should be respected, our religious beliefs respected, and our founder Jesus Christ respected," he said, without elaborating on what legal means he had in mind.

So, in this case, by "respect," the good cardinal means "using the force of law to ban speech with which I disagree," which is clearly what "legal action" means despite a lack of specificity. Funny how "forgive and forget" was good enough for Jesus but not for Cardinal Francis Arinze. Jesus built 2000-year religion out of peace, love, and persuasion. Today, Arinze wants law enforcement to act against people who disagree with his beliefs.

And people wonder where the idea of the Catholic church "hiding the truth about Jesus" comes from.