The Vatican is joining a host of Protestant groups who have mobilized to rebut Dan Brown's runaway best-selling thriller "The Da Vinci Code."

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Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa and a possible successor to the Pope, has been commissioned to rebut what he calls the errors, lies and distortions of the book with a string of public debates, beginning Wednesday in Genoa, the Times of London said Tuesday.

Brown's book, which has earned about $269 million, holds that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and bore him a child and also criticizes the Roman Catholic church for allegedly suppressing the feminine side of Christianity.

It is heavily indebted to the gnostic and non-canonical Gospel of Thomas.

Protestant writers and groups has been attack the Brown book with such titles as "The Da Vinci Hoax" and "The Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code."