Dark Mysteries of the Vatican by H. Paul Jeffers

SUMMARY: The Catholic Church is the oldest and the most influential institution in the world. Its secretiveness has always been accompanied by lies, scandals and conspiracies. Dark mysteries of the Vatican include everything from the plot against the Templar Knights to sympathising with the Nazis, from exorcism to the Church’s view upon aliens and the end of the world.

MY OPINION:

At the beginning I have to say that this book was not what I had expected it to be. I had supposed it would either be gravely discrediting the Vatican or ardently defending it. However, Jeffers does neither of these.

Dark Mysteries of the Vatican is predominantly a factual book. It provides a lot of evidence acquired through a thorough research. Jeffers is a very objective author. Whichever myth, secret or rumour he focuses on, he tries to resolve it by stating factual proofs from various documents, including the vast quantity of material from the Vatican archives.

The most interesting parts of the book to me were those about the book prohibition process and murders and the history of the Catholic Church, from which I actually learned something new. Generally there was only few data surprising or new to me, but it might be just because I have been always interested in the Church and I knew a lot about it prior to reading this book.

Also, I felt at times the book is even a little over packed with data and in other places lacking information. The latter is understandable due to a very limited access to some Vatican documents. What has always been most intriguing for me and is still left unsolved is the question why the Church is so reluctant to make public the documents which could clarify some confusing issues or in particular cases possibly clear its name, unless those documents would be unfavourable to the Church, or it might be somehow for our own benefit.

All in all, Jeffers’s objective, fact-based approach is praiseworthy, although it has one flaw as I see it, which is that it hardly provides any conclusive answers. Nevertheless, it is not necessarily a bad thing, since everyone can come to their own conclusions according to their beliefs and in this way the book avoids offensiveness, which is very important dealing with such a delicate subject matter.

RECOMMENDATION: If you are interested in all the mysteries about the Vatican and the Catholic Church and you are not too squeamish about scandalous insinuations, this is definitely the book to read, but do not expect to get any final answers. Instead, you will get a lot of factual evidence upon which you can form your own opinion.