By:Sam Vaknin The history of the Catholic Church reads like the annals of a global crime concern. It gave the world the inquisition, incestuous and murderous popes, religious warfare, pedophiliac sex scandals, idolatry, and the gnawing guilt that comes from embracing life-defying ideals. Its intentional lack of transparency, murky dealings, and refusal to be held accountable for the actions of its adherents and officials have rendered it complicit in the most horrendous events of the last two millennia. With a modicum of justice it has been accused of anything and everything from collaborating with the Nazi regime (and helping war criminals flee justice) to instigating and perpetrating the more insidious forms of anti-Semitism. Its current head was a willing member of the Nazi youth movement. Its former, long-serving, chief actively spread AIDS throughout the developing world by prohibiting the use of contraceptives. Hence "The da Vinci Code" and a slew of other anti-Catholic tomes. This genre thrives on the widespread conviction that there is nothing the Catholic Church will refrain from doing or find too abhorrent to further its earthly wealth and might. Alas, history this time is on the side of the conspiracy theorists. Article Source: http://www.dailynewarticles.com Sam Vaknin ( samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia. Visit Sam's Web site at samvak.tripod.com More Articles from History Category: Back to The Future With Germany Discover the USMC Challenge Coin Chavez's Inspiration - Simon Bolivar The Story of the Guillotine The Building of the Pentagon History of Internet Explorer Conflict in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) PART I Thousands of Failures, but Thousands of Patents How The Chinese Communist Party Exerts and Maintains Control Argentina's Economy in a Nutshell Human-made Monsters Another Look at Indians (Native Americans, Amerindians) The Uganda Scheme The First Serial Killer - Ed Gein The American Revolution