Dark History: Catholic Church

A Dark History Series

by Michael Kerrigan

HIST

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Christianity, Christian, Catholic

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Michael Kerrigan is a seasoned freelance writer and editor with over thirty years of experience across a wide spectrum of publishing work, from advertising and catalogue copy to book blurbs and specialist nonfiction. A prolific author, he has written around sixty full-length books on subjects ranging from ancient warfare and Slavic myth to modern architecture and the science of consciousness, all aimed at a general readership. He contributed a weekly Books in Brief column to The Scotsman for two decades and has reviewed extensively for the Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and Financial Times.

Reviews

[Don]

Catholics should be ashamed of their church’s sordid history.

[M. O'Gannon]

Dark History of the Catholic Church – non-fiction – 2015 - ***** - Kerrigan covers the entire history of the Catholic Church from Roman Empire beginnings, through the crusades, the inquisition, colonization of Americas and Africa and Asia, the reformation, and past and current sex scandals. Given the breath of the subject, long detailed accounts are kept to a minimum and highlights of each area are covered. While this is not a condemnation of the church, it does cast a heavy acrid smoke across its history. The author does point out multiple times that the Catholic Church does a plethora of good around the world. But there is no denying the stain and stigma of many of its past deeds. As a person born into the Catholic faith to Irish immigrants, the book only reinforces my personal sense of the Catholic Church as a controlling bureaucracy clinging to the past and unwilling to admit its failings. The view I was presented attending a Catholic parochial school in the 1960s was so one sided that it resembles Putin's view of the Ukrainian war. Once again, history shows us that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Kudos to Kerrigan for putting together a book that is informative, somewhat easy reading, objective and informative. Now, I would like to find a comparable book on the Muslim religion. It could prove to be an interesting counter point.

[Shannon]

All Catholics need to read this book. If you think Catholicism does not have a violent and bloody past, think again.

[Celz Lin]

This is the other side of history that we were not told about. I grew up learning only one side of history and I feel a big chunk of the story is lacking. The characters in history books were portrayed as great heroes while the other side are the villains or the vermins that should be eradicated but I always ask the question “WHY?”. A lot of people died and as they say “dead men tell no tales.” but somehow the records got out and the truth about the bloody dark history surfaced. I don’t know if this book is being censored but it keep on disappearing on my reader. But the prophecy is happening that everything will be exposed in the last days events.

[Some Christian Lady]

(Did not finish. Stopped at 25%) The author not only doesn’t understand the difference between a Catholic and a Christian, but he apparently hates both religions anyway (though he thinks they are one and the same). He speaks glowingly of Muslims, Jews & Pagans, but mocks “Christianity” (Catholicism) at every opportunity. If he simply wasn’t a Christian, but didn’t make his grievance so obvious, I could still read this as the “history” he claims it to be; but when the author makes it crystal clear that he has an axe to grind with Christianity, the whole thing comes off as biased, and therefore untrustworthy. I wouldn’t waste your time on this book.

[Nico Rodriguez]

Very interesting read.

[Desollado]

I guess this kind of reading is not for bigots or fanatics of neither side. The author takes much precaution in being objective and tries to show a general trend, not specific examples.

[George Hodgson]

This is a decent read. The author is covering a couple millennia of history in a couple hundred illustrated pages. Very readable.

[Ronnie]

Well researched book that was easy to read. Points out many of the issues with a corrupt organization.

[Tomi]

There wasn't a lot of information in this book that I didn't already know. It is a good overview of the problems that have faced the Catholic Church over the centuries (and the book wasn't nearly as lurid as the title made it out to be). The part that interested me the most and was new to me was the section about the Catholic mission effort in Japan. I had no idea that there were massacres of Christians in Japan. I was also somewhat surprised that Kerrigan devoted so much space to the Magdalene Laundries. And the most surprising thing was the section about Mother Teresa...seems she wasn't quite as saintly as normally painted! Overall, a very interesting book and a good introduction to the institution of the Roman Catholic Church.

[Dana]

Seemed a bit biased in some aspects but overall informative read.