If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. America's Catholic League is to campaign against Angels and Demons, Ron Howard's prequel to worldwide blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, it said yesterday.

The League, which is led by controversial president William A Donohue, said it would be pointing out what it says are a number of falsehoods in the new film and the Dan Brown book on which it is based. It also claimed Angels and Demons, which arrives in cinemas on 15 May, had an anti-Catholic agenda.

The League's determination to repeat its campaign against 2006's The Da Vinci Code is slightly surprising because statements it made in the run-up to the film's release were widely suspected to have helped, rather than hindered, the movie's gargantuan $758m (£540m) global box office.

In the new film, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, played once again by Tom Hanks, discovers the existence of the Illuminati, a powerful secret organisation that has been pitting itself against the Roman Catholic church for centuries. Together with Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) he follows a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols to the heart of "the most secretive vault on Earth".

Donohue, who has been president of the league since 1993, has not always been cast in the best light by his public proclamations on the world of film. Describing opposition to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in 2004 he said Hollywood was "controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular".

Donahue continued: "It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the Messiah." He later apologised for his remarks, saying he regretted the use of the word "controlled".