Dan Brown's best-selling novel and subsequent popular movie, The DaVinci Code, created a sensation and intense criticism from the Roman Catholic clergy; yet it was fiction! Now, with Imma Penn's Dogma Evolution and Papal Fallicies, little known historical facts have been presented using the actual statements of priests, bishops, emperors, kings, popes and contemporary chroniclers. It shines a bright light on the evolution of Christian religious beliefs and practices that inspired Dan Brown's creation. A darker side of Catholicism is revealed - its schism controversies, the antipopes, papal corruptions and obscenities, the selling of indulgences, simony, the Inquisition condoned and encouraged by 73 popes, and the torture and the burning at the stake of hundreds of thousands of non-believers.
Penn's critical history of the Roman Catholic Church shows the Curia presiding over an institution still in tune with the 13th century. Modern-day "cafeteria" Catholics may be surprised by some of the facts which have been kept out of the public eye. They may also be fascinated to learn how Catholic religious doctrine and rituals have evolved from pagan practices.
Catholicism is ripe for reform. The recent priestly misbehaviors and the cover-up are well known and repetitive of the Church's reactions to the misdeeds of its past. A fresh, transparent approach is needed to cleanse the institution of it excessive non-spiritual baggage. It is no wonder that some prominent Catholics, like authors Garry Wills and James Carroll, have called for a Vatican III, a coming together of the Church, to bring about the necessary public apologies and reforms.

Readers may be interested to learn of the revelations in this book. Here are just a few examples:

¦ Two popes, Vigilius (537-555) and Boniface VIII (1294-1303), had their predessors imprisoned where they died of starvation.

¦ Michelangelo's patron, Pope Julius III (1550-1555), appointed his homosexual partner, Inn