Director Ron Howard has recently come under fire from Catholic League president William Donohue because of his new film, “Angels & Demons,” based off the Dan Brown best-selling mystery fiction novel–the prequel to “The Da Vinci Code.” In a recent article on The Huffington Post, Howard adresses Donohue’s concerns and accusations. We’ve reprinted part of the article below with permission.

‘Angels & Demons’: It’s A Thriller, Not A Crusade
By Ron Howard
William Donohue of the Catholic League is on a mission. Whether it is a “mission from God,” as the Blues Brothers would say, only God knows, but the goal of his mission is clear: to paint me and the movie I directed, Angels & Demons, as anti-Catholic.
For a $5 donation to his organization, Mr. Donohue will send you his glossy new booklet (Angels & Demons: More Demonic Than Angelic), in which he writes that I and the people who made this thriller “do not hide their animus against all things Catholic.”
He’s been making these assertions for years, going back to the theatrical release of The Da Vinci Code. He stepped up his campaign more than a month ago with a series of press releases. And there he goes again, in a Daily News op-ed last Friday, saying that Dan Brown and I “have collaborated in smearing the Catholic Church….”
Let me be clear: neither I nor Angels & Demons are anti-Catholic. And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics, including most in the hierarchy of the Church, will enjoy the movie for what it is: an exciting mystery, set in the awe-inspiring beauty of Rome. After all, in Angels & Demons, Professor Robert Langdon teams up with the Catholic Church to thwart a vicious attack against the Vatican. What, exactly, is anti-Catholic about that?
Read the rest on The Huffington Post.
“Angels & Demons” hits theaters May 15.
For complete coverage of “Angels & Demons” visit Beliefnet’s “Angels & Demons” Page.