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.
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
