Unlike Dan Brown's «The Da Vinci Code», David Ranan's well researched «Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church» is a fact based, across-the board analysis of the Catholic Church. His conclusions are not less startling. The book reflects on whether there is a systemic fault at the heart of the Church and considers the paradox between her message of love and her history of violence. Ranan's insightful analysis explains why the modern Church has such difficulty in reversing her teachings on such fundamental questions as birth control, abortions, the Jews, and other shibboleths. He explains why the Church has even today failed to give anything more than a half hearted apology for Galileo's `trial` and why she has for so long covered up sexual abuse by her priests. This compelling book will be of interest to anyone whose life is or was affected by the Church, as well as Catholics and non-Catholics who are interested in the power of religion and who wonder about the ability of the Church to change.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
David Ranan has produced a splendid polemic, passionate and detailed, against the Roman Catholic Church and all its ways. He rails, not at the teachings of Christ and the religion to which he gave rise, but against the Church as a political institution.
In the first comprehensive account to have appeared, Double Cross traces the story of Catholic leaders' long engagement with temporal authority. It ranges from the conversion of Constantine and the Holy Roman Emperor's prostration before Pope Gregory at Canossa to the Church's global role today. Whether it be the record of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages or the contemporary scandal of paedophile priests... A good, if sometimes agonising, read. -- Anthony Everitt, Bestelling Author, April 2007
Forget the "Da Vinci Code": this is the book that tells the bombshell truth about the Catholic Church.
... a new book that is a real firecracker - Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church by David Ranan.
If the Vatican was afraid of the effects of the Da Vinci Code on its corrupt empire, wait until it sees this!
Dr David Ranan is a political scientist whose main area of interest is the study of power structures. His academic objectivity adds even more weight to this jaw-dropping exposé of the Vatican's age-old web of deceit, corruption and murder.
Four hundred and twenty-six dynamite pages of truth-telling that will have Josef Ratzinger squirming on his golden throne.
This really is a book not to miss. -- The National Secular Society Newsline, March 2007
Ranan is surprisingly even-handed and low-key in reporting on a history of unbelievable abuse of power, corruption and hypocrisy ... In almost every case he calmly presents the facts and explains that the various abuses seem to come from organizational imperatives and maintenance concerns rather than from flaws in doctrine. ...Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church certainly challenged my affection and nostalgia for the religion of my youth. It was much more readable and compelling than I'd expected. It's well written and it is pretty convincing. -- White Crane
Speaking of how other people may see us, I have been reading a fascinating, if somewhat uncomfortable book called Double Cross by David Ranan (Theo Press). When I tell you that it devotes 350 pages to attacking the Church ... you will understand why I would not recommend it to anyone who is not familiar with Church history and the general cut and thrust of apologetic debate. ... whenever I was able to check references they proved satisfactory. Withal, I found the book salutary. It reminds me how the credibility of the Church has so often been endangered not only by bad individuals but by bad trends. -- Catholic Herald, November 2007
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By foxfire1013
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not to be a kill-joy on the 5 star ratings - I give this a 2-star solely because of the way the material is organized, supported and presented. The supportive documentation section of the book is unorganized and there needs to be documented references to support allegations:
1) Notes and bibliography are not separated. This is tacky because it makes checking references very difficult for the reader. See From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time for probably the best example I've ever seen to deal with footnotes vs end-notes with associated bibliography.
2) The need to separate fact from fiction is imperative. It is not helpful to the reader to have a supposed fact tossed out without supporting documentation. Take for example, the allegation that use of anesthetics in childbirth was opposed by the Catholic church because the Bible said women were destined to suffer pain because of their original sin (eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, not that Adam would have had the guts to go there...). It took me a long time to track down data that suggests this was accurate in certain situations and not ubiquitous or a policy of the Corporate Church.
In summary, my personal opinion is that this could have been a good reference book if the author paid more attention to detail and had not let his emotions interfere with the points he wished to make. Being an atheist of perhaps the "new" variety, my moral values require me to be fair. Perhaps this is because of some kind of attraction to a "Golden Rule" that reflects an evolutionary past, as opposed to a Iron-age myth about a magic sky-fairy that breathed on dirt.
1) Notes and bibliography are not separated. This is tacky because it makes checking references very difficult for the reader. See From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time for probably the best example I've ever seen to deal with footnotes vs end-notes with associated bibliography.
2) The need to separate fact from fiction is imperative. It is not helpful to the reader to have a supposed fact tossed out without supporting documentation. Take for example, the allegation that use of anesthetics in childbirth was opposed by the Catholic church because the Bible said women were destined to suffer pain because of their original sin (eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, not that Adam would have had the guts to go there...). It took me a long time to track down data that suggests this was accurate in certain situations and not ubiquitous or a policy of the Corporate Church.
In summary, my personal opinion is that this could have been a good reference book if the author paid more attention to detail and had not let his emotions interfere with the points he wished to make. Being an atheist of perhaps the "new" variety, my moral values require me to be fair. Perhaps this is because of some kind of attraction to a "Golden Rule" that reflects an evolutionary past, as opposed to a Iron-age myth about a magic sky-fairy that breathed on dirt.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Modern Perspective: Catholic Church Equals Monarchy Equals Corporation
May 9, 2010
By Louis Vaz
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church by David Ranan lays out the modus operandi of the Church covering its structure and power base; truth and policing of free thought; corruptions; history of anti-Semitism; the holy violence; the holocaust; post holocaust behavior; centuries of abuse, deceit, sex scandals within the organization; meddling in International affairs; maintaining a list of forbidden books from 1559 until 1966; and hatred towards women and sex. The repression of women and a kind of anti-sexual pessimism reached it highest peak under John Paul II, see Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church by Uta Ranke-Heineman and Peter Heinegg), ibid. David Ranan has made an excellent attempt at providing useful information from numerous references, footnotes and extensive notes to each chapter.
The rhythm of the book with lively descriptions of intrigues crafted should make any unbiased reader to wonder about the mind set of its religious founders. It appears that deception, miraculous claims and intense faith forcefully drives minds of most believers. The mind set of designers appears to have become trapped in the darkness of antiquity which created their outrageous fables. A balanced mind takes into account advancement in science (physics, biology, chemistry, geology, cosmology, evolution and technology). It becomes a mind shattering logic to come with a sensible understanding of the Catholic clergy. For the common man not having opportunities even today to become enlightened with knowledge, it becomes a formidable task to clear the cobwebs of antiquity generated by centuries of twisted views and cemented on a non democratic pyramidal corporate structure centered in the Vatican quarters in Rome to broadcast from there.
This review is inspired by the book, and bolstered by information gathered from many similar publications, as well as those referred to in the review and current sex scandals related to the Catholic Church. It goes through genealogy of Christianity starting with ancient myths and paganism; evolution of knowledge; configured patchwork of earlier religions; growth into organization based in Rome; build up from dark ages into the Holy Inquisition period; its spread into the West with suppression of science and free thought through the renaissance period; its forays into the East (the Goa Inquisition during the Portuguese occupation); continued hatred for Jews through World War II; several incarnations of the Inquisition until very recently in the form of doctrine of faith; its growth into an extremely rich modern corporate giant, the Vatican, with a judiciary system, and a powerful modern banking base; current battles and cover ups to damage control the fallout from sexual crimes of its clergy; and to maintain the corporation's image from centuries of abuse.
Foundation of Christianity
It is well know now that knowledge has been evolving with time as humanity struggled to find meaning to its existence. In the slow evolutionary process, knowledge was initially passed to generations in primitive cave paintings, and hieroglyphics. With the evolution of languages it was conveyed in writings which were slowly reinforced with grammar. Cultures developed and got incorporated as humans moved all across the earth from its ancestral Africa , [...], some 200,000 years ago. Well known religions which appeared in the historically known order are Hindusism, Bhudhism, Jewism, Christianity and Islam. Travel, commerce and ingenuity (brain-enabled) accelerated the spread of knowledge.
Christian religion is not original but have its beginnings in the pagan gods (notably of India, Egypt, Greece and Romans), astrological mythology, and earlier religions of Hindusism, Bhudhism, Jewism and Mithrasism. Solar flares observed with NASA's technology, [...], were not available to the ancients. Hence the understanding of nature was primitive and extremely limited. As a result, Christianity became configured like a patchwork of quilt of ancient motifs found in many parts of the world eons before its time. It was "spread mainly through fraud, fanaticism and force" described in the book, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (Paperback), by Acharya S. The Christian fathers had simply plagiarized older myths and legends, and brewed into a conspiracy, political power and religion with the support of regimes whose population was largely chiristians initially and later catholics.
Over centuries the Catholic Church grew into a structure with a central bureaucracy. In its infancy it had to struggle with several competing sects proclaiming themselves as Christians. The Emperor Constantine I, himself a pagan, converted to Christianity in a shrewd political move and made it the religion of the Roman Empire. Slowly the local administrative structures were pulled together into one hierarchy with Vatican as the center in Rome. All doctrinal arguments were settled by Church Councils, the first of which is the Council of Nicea in 325 CE. Any resistance was policed and persecuted. State rulers were sworn to protect the Church. From there on it is a recorded history of growth of greed, power, murderous religious fury, and mind control of the innocent through deception, repression, persecution, abominable crimes and fear.
The Holy Inquisition: Occidental
The 600 year old archives opened recently (1998) by the Vatican provide insight into the genesis and history of the Holy Inquisition. It was actually instituted by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) in Rome, and Pope Gregory IX established it in 1233 to combat the heresy of the Abilgenses, an extremely ascetic religious sect in France. It became the most notorious suppression in religious history throughout Central and Western Europe, but it never got instituted in England or Scandinavia. This dark side of Catholic religion is recounted in the PBS video documentary, Secret Files of the Inquisition aired in 2007 - [...]; for the media coverage see [...]. The video covers four episodes: (1) wiping out the Cathar heretics in southern France, Chapter 4, Holy Violence ; (2) the hounding of Jews out of Spain (see also Part 2, The Church and Jews (David Ranan), The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain by B. Netanyahu, and The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism by David I. Kertzer, and references therein; (3) war with free thought of the renaissance period and scientific ideas; and (4) the end of the Inquisition in Spain by Napoleon, the unification of Italian states, the break up of the papal states, confining the Pope to the Vatican quarters, the fight for Edgardo Mortara, abducted by the Vatican Police in Bologna.
The Holy Inquisition: Oriental
Comparatively, the Goa Inquisition has not been well known in the West until very recently. A modern review, [...], cites that the 'Goa Inquisition was most merciless and cruel'. It was introduced in the territory of Goa, India in the 16th century by the Catholic missionaries, with the help of the rulers of colonial Portugal. See [...], by Anant B. Priolkar,[...], and Dellon's Account of the Inquisition, a digital copy (in Adobe format) "discoverable" online on Google. It was used to overrun and destroy existing religions (Hindus and Moslems), language and culture of the territory of Goa. Sadly, even today brainwashed Catholics find it difficult to accept that the Goa Inquisition was started at the request of Francis Xavier, a canonized and popular local saint. Some of the artifacts used in the conversion methods are still known to exist in Panaji, Goa, while Old Goa has now become a UNESCO heritage and a collector of revenues for "Peter's Pence" from tourism.
Modern Catholic Church: Corporation, arrogant, controversial, rich and powerful
The modern Catholic Church is a pyramidal, centralized and authoritarian organization headed by one man, the Pope who governs from the Vatican. See the documentary, The Corporation (DVD). It is a modern monetary giant, a self styled state, with rules to govern itself outside of the ethics, legal rules and regulations normal citizens face in any state for misdeeds. With a powerful body of bureaucrats with diplomatic contacts, the Vatican has acquired observer status in the important world organizations, such as the UN. This privilege allows it to influence its own agenda in the international world affairs.
The Church is lethargic in accepting scientific truth since its inception. Its belated mea culpa and "forgiveness for wounds of the Inquisition" in the face of criticism and public shame cannot replace injustice. It took them three and a half centuries to apologize to Galileo. It was a slap on the wrist. They have not yet apologized to Giordano Bruno, Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku. Their mind set is locked up in antiquity.
The current flare up of the media reporting on the abuses and its handling, highlights corporate-like operational procedures. It is cocky and overbearing. It was reported in a NY Times column, [...]that during a frustrating argument a cardinal told Napoleon Bonaparte: "Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you." The Office of the Holy Inquisition has undergone many resurrections. The modern incarnation is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which underwent a revolution in 2001 when Cardinal Ratzinger subjected all sexual abuse allegations against priests to the authority of his office. Even today CDF censures theologians who tend to veer from the accepted faith. Read more ›
The rhythm of the book with lively descriptions of intrigues crafted should make any unbiased reader to wonder about the mind set of its religious founders. It appears that deception, miraculous claims and intense faith forcefully drives minds of most believers. The mind set of designers appears to have become trapped in the darkness of antiquity which created their outrageous fables. A balanced mind takes into account advancement in science (physics, biology, chemistry, geology, cosmology, evolution and technology). It becomes a mind shattering logic to come with a sensible understanding of the Catholic clergy. For the common man not having opportunities even today to become enlightened with knowledge, it becomes a formidable task to clear the cobwebs of antiquity generated by centuries of twisted views and cemented on a non democratic pyramidal corporate structure centered in the Vatican quarters in Rome to broadcast from there.
This review is inspired by the book, and bolstered by information gathered from many similar publications, as well as those referred to in the review and current sex scandals related to the Catholic Church. It goes through genealogy of Christianity starting with ancient myths and paganism; evolution of knowledge; configured patchwork of earlier religions; growth into organization based in Rome; build up from dark ages into the Holy Inquisition period; its spread into the West with suppression of science and free thought through the renaissance period; its forays into the East (the Goa Inquisition during the Portuguese occupation); continued hatred for Jews through World War II; several incarnations of the Inquisition until very recently in the form of doctrine of faith; its growth into an extremely rich modern corporate giant, the Vatican, with a judiciary system, and a powerful modern banking base; current battles and cover ups to damage control the fallout from sexual crimes of its clergy; and to maintain the corporation's image from centuries of abuse.
Foundation of Christianity
It is well know now that knowledge has been evolving with time as humanity struggled to find meaning to its existence. In the slow evolutionary process, knowledge was initially passed to generations in primitive cave paintings, and hieroglyphics. With the evolution of languages it was conveyed in writings which were slowly reinforced with grammar. Cultures developed and got incorporated as humans moved all across the earth from its ancestral Africa , [...], some 200,000 years ago. Well known religions which appeared in the historically known order are Hindusism, Bhudhism, Jewism, Christianity and Islam. Travel, commerce and ingenuity (brain-enabled) accelerated the spread of knowledge.
Christian religion is not original but have its beginnings in the pagan gods (notably of India, Egypt, Greece and Romans), astrological mythology, and earlier religions of Hindusism, Bhudhism, Jewism and Mithrasism. Solar flares observed with NASA's technology, [...], were not available to the ancients. Hence the understanding of nature was primitive and extremely limited. As a result, Christianity became configured like a patchwork of quilt of ancient motifs found in many parts of the world eons before its time. It was "spread mainly through fraud, fanaticism and force" described in the book, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (Paperback), by Acharya S. The Christian fathers had simply plagiarized older myths and legends, and brewed into a conspiracy, political power and religion with the support of regimes whose population was largely chiristians initially and later catholics.
Over centuries the Catholic Church grew into a structure with a central bureaucracy. In its infancy it had to struggle with several competing sects proclaiming themselves as Christians. The Emperor Constantine I, himself a pagan, converted to Christianity in a shrewd political move and made it the religion of the Roman Empire. Slowly the local administrative structures were pulled together into one hierarchy with Vatican as the center in Rome. All doctrinal arguments were settled by Church Councils, the first of which is the Council of Nicea in 325 CE. Any resistance was policed and persecuted. State rulers were sworn to protect the Church. From there on it is a recorded history of growth of greed, power, murderous religious fury, and mind control of the innocent through deception, repression, persecution, abominable crimes and fear.
The Holy Inquisition: Occidental
The 600 year old archives opened recently (1998) by the Vatican provide insight into the genesis and history of the Holy Inquisition. It was actually instituted by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) in Rome, and Pope Gregory IX established it in 1233 to combat the heresy of the Abilgenses, an extremely ascetic religious sect in France. It became the most notorious suppression in religious history throughout Central and Western Europe, but it never got instituted in England or Scandinavia. This dark side of Catholic religion is recounted in the PBS video documentary, Secret Files of the Inquisition aired in 2007 - [...]; for the media coverage see [...]. The video covers four episodes: (1) wiping out the Cathar heretics in southern France, Chapter 4, Holy Violence ; (2) the hounding of Jews out of Spain (see also Part 2, The Church and Jews (David Ranan), The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain by B. Netanyahu, and The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism by David I. Kertzer, and references therein; (3) war with free thought of the renaissance period and scientific ideas; and (4) the end of the Inquisition in Spain by Napoleon, the unification of Italian states, the break up of the papal states, confining the Pope to the Vatican quarters, the fight for Edgardo Mortara, abducted by the Vatican Police in Bologna.
The Holy Inquisition: Oriental
Comparatively, the Goa Inquisition has not been well known in the West until very recently. A modern review, [...], cites that the 'Goa Inquisition was most merciless and cruel'. It was introduced in the territory of Goa, India in the 16th century by the Catholic missionaries, with the help of the rulers of colonial Portugal. See [...], by Anant B. Priolkar,[...], and Dellon's Account of the Inquisition, a digital copy (in Adobe format) "discoverable" online on Google. It was used to overrun and destroy existing religions (Hindus and Moslems), language and culture of the territory of Goa. Sadly, even today brainwashed Catholics find it difficult to accept that the Goa Inquisition was started at the request of Francis Xavier, a canonized and popular local saint. Some of the artifacts used in the conversion methods are still known to exist in Panaji, Goa, while Old Goa has now become a UNESCO heritage and a collector of revenues for "Peter's Pence" from tourism.
Modern Catholic Church: Corporation, arrogant, controversial, rich and powerful
The modern Catholic Church is a pyramidal, centralized and authoritarian organization headed by one man, the Pope who governs from the Vatican. See the documentary, The Corporation (DVD). It is a modern monetary giant, a self styled state, with rules to govern itself outside of the ethics, legal rules and regulations normal citizens face in any state for misdeeds. With a powerful body of bureaucrats with diplomatic contacts, the Vatican has acquired observer status in the important world organizations, such as the UN. This privilege allows it to influence its own agenda in the international world affairs.
The Church is lethargic in accepting scientific truth since its inception. Its belated mea culpa and "forgiveness for wounds of the Inquisition" in the face of criticism and public shame cannot replace injustice. It took them three and a half centuries to apologize to Galileo. It was a slap on the wrist. They have not yet apologized to Giordano Bruno, Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku. Their mind set is locked up in antiquity.
The current flare up of the media reporting on the abuses and its handling, highlights corporate-like operational procedures. It is cocky and overbearing. It was reported in a NY Times column, [...]that during a frustrating argument a cardinal told Napoleon Bonaparte: "Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you." The Office of the Holy Inquisition has undergone many resurrections. The modern incarnation is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which underwent a revolution in 2001 when Cardinal Ratzinger subjected all sexual abuse allegations against priests to the authority of his office. Even today CDF censures theologians who tend to veer from the accepted faith. Read more ›
13 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have just finished David Ranan's "Double Cross, the Code of the Catholic Church", an insightful analysis of the Church's history in which he unravels the whole Catholic power-play. It is quite outspoken, yet factual and not emotional. Ranan, who writes with biting eloquence, has produced a book, the pace of which is breathtaking, and which reads like a super-thriller.
I have personal knowledge of some of the damage caused by the Catholic Church to its own members and therefore consider that this book does a great public service.
The book should be read not only by those who will agree with the author, but importantly by Catholics.
Catholic priests and bishops! Read David Ranan to better understand your Church, even if - and really especially if - some of the facts will fill you with horror when they sink in.
I have personal knowledge of some of the damage caused by the Catholic Church to its own members and therefore consider that this book does a great public service.
The book should be read not only by those who will agree with the author, but importantly by Catholics.
Catholic priests and bishops! Read David Ranan to better understand your Church, even if - and really especially if - some of the facts will fill you with horror when they sink in.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Class Action should follow
This is exquistitely written and flawlessly researched. I could not put it down. The bibliography is itself a fascinating read. Read more
Published on April 1, 2008 by C. E. B. Portman
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "must-read" for anyone involved in or affected by the Catholic...
Written by political scientist David Ranan, Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church is a severe indictment of the many flaws, moral lapses, and outright crimes of the... Read more
Published on July 9, 2007 by Midwest Book Review
5.0 out of 5 stars
full of insight and thrill
Excellent book. Ranan's exhaustive history and analysis of the inner workings and policy making of the Catholic Church is both insightful and a thrilling read. Read more
Published on June 9, 2007 by Christian Kopfli
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