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In the Closet of the Vatican
- Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the Closet of the Vatican is a fascinating description and evaluation of financial, sexual and political misconduct throughout the Catholic Church at a time when new revelations are being uncovered each and every week. This audiobook explores the underlying causes and includes interviews with numerous Cardinals and other individuals, some of whom cannot be named.
Martel reveals financial scandals in the Vatican bank; political collusion with unsavoury regimes, including Castro’s Cuba and Pinochet’s Chile; sexual abuse and hypocrisy over homosexuality. In this explosive account, Martel goes to the heart of corruption in the Catholic Church and inside the Vatican itself.
Martel is a researcher and writer. He has a PhD in social sciences and four master's degrees in law, political science, philosophy, and social science (University La Sorbonne). He has been visiting scholar at Harvard University and taught at Sciences-Po Paris and at the HEC’s Business School MBA in Paris.
He is the author of nine books, including On Culture in America (Gallimard, 2006) and the best seller Mainstream: On the Global War on Culture and Medias (Flammarion, 2010, translated in 20 countries). He has had articles in Newsweek, the New Yorker and the New York Times.
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In My Battle against Hitler, von Hildebrand tells of the scorn and ridicule he endured for sounding the alarm when many still viewed Hitler as a positive and inevitable force. He tells how he defiantly challenged Nazism in the public square, prompting the German ambassador in Vienna to describe him to Hitler as "the architect of the intellectual resistance."
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amazing book what in site I loved every second.
- By tracie on 07-14-15
By: John Henry Crosby, and others
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The Dreyfus Affair
- The Scandal That Tore France in Two
- By: Piers Paul Read
- Narrated by: David Pevsner
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 13, 1894, Captain Dreyfus was summoned by the General de Boisdeffre to the Ministry of War. Despite minimal evidence against him he was placed under arrest for the crime of high treason. Not long afterward Dreyfus was incarcerated on Devil's Island. But how did an innocent man come to be convicted? And why was he kept locked up for so long? The Dreyfus Affair uniquely combines a fast-moving mystery story with a snapshot of France at a moment of great social flux and cultural richness.
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Gripping look at an important moment in history
- By W. Brian Hall on 10-27-13
By: Piers Paul Read
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Rasputin
- The Untold Story
- By: Joseph T. Fuhrmann
- Narrated by: Curtis Sisco
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A century after his death, Grigory Rasputin remains fascinating: the Russian peasant with hypnotic eyes who befriended Tsar Nicholas II and helped destroy the Russian Empire, but the truth about his strange life has never fully been told. Written by the world's leading authority on Rasputin, this new biography draws on previously closed Soviet archives to offer new information on Rasputin's relationship with Empress Alexandra, sensational revelations about his sexual conquests, a re-examination of his murder, and more.
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The Legend of Rasputin
- By S on 05-02-13
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Gandhi
- The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948
- By: Ramachandra Guha
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 36 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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This volume opens with Mohandas Gandhi's arrival in Bombay in January 1915 and takes us through his epic struggles over the next three decades. In reconstructing Gandhi's life and work, author Ramachandra Guha has drawn on 60 different archival collections. Using this wealth of material, Guha creates a portrait of Gandhi and of those closest to him that illuminates the complexity inside his thinking, his motives, his actions, and their outcomes as he engaged with every important aspect of social and public life in the India of his time.
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Well researched and heart touching
- By M Umar Khan on 02-01-21
By: Ramachandra Guha
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Hitler
- Ascent 1889-1939
- By: Volker Ullrich
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 34 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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For all the literature about Adolf Hitler, there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood, to his failures as a young man in Vienna, to his experiences during the First World War, to his rise as a far-right party leader.
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Worthwhile if you haven't read a Hitler biography
- By Joshua on 11-03-16
By: Volker Ullrich
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Martin Luther
- Renegade and Prophet
- By: Lyndal Roper
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 31, 1517, an unknown monk nailed a theological pamphlet to a church door in a small university town and set in motion a process that helped usher in the modern world. Within a few years, Luther's ideas had spread like wildfire. His attempts to reform Christianity by returning it to its biblical roots split the Western Church, divided Europe, and polarized people's beliefs.
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The purpose of this book is not to be a biography
- By LionsCalling09 on 01-25-18
By: Lyndal Roper
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Kierkegaard
- A Single Life
- By: Stephen Backhouse
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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An accessible, expert introduction to one of the greatest minds of 19th century. Whether you're completely new to him, or if you're already familiar with his work, Kierkegaard: A Single Life presents a fresh understanding of his life and thought. Kierkegaard was a brilliant and enigmatic loner whose ideas permeated culture, shaped modern Christianity, and influenced people as diverse as Franz Kafka and Martin Luther King Jr. Though few people today have read his work, that lack of familiarity with the real Kierkegaard is changing with this biography by scholar Stephen Backhouse.
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Great!
- By Will on 07-11-17
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The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
- By: David I. Kertzer
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Bologna, 1858: A police posse, acting on the orders of a Catholic inquisitor, invades the home of a Jewish merchant, Momolo Mortara, wrenches his crying six-year-old son from his arms, and rushes him off in a carriage bound for Rome. His mother is so distraught that she collapses and has to be taken to a neighbor's house, but her weeping can be heard across the city. With this terrifying scene - one that would haunt this family forever - David I. Kertzer begins his fascinating investigation of the dramatic kidnapping.
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Too much detail
- By L. WILLIAM on 03-03-24
By: David I. Kertzer
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The Way of the Strangers
- Encounters with the Islamic State
- By: Graeme Wood
- Narrated by: Graeme Wood
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Tens of thousands of men and women have left comfortable, privileged lives to join the Islamic State and kill for it. To them, its violence is beautiful and holy, and the caliphate a fulfillment of prophecy and the only place on earth where they can live and die as Muslims. The Way of the Strangers is an intimate journey into the minds of the Islamic State's true believers. From the streets of Cairo to the mosques of London, Wood interviews supporters, recruiters, and sympathizers of the group.
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A longer version of the Atlantic article
- By Nassir on 04-29-17
By: Graeme Wood
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Trotsky
- Downfall of a Revolutionary
- By: Bertrand M. Patenaude
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary, Stanford University lecturer Bertrand M. Patenaude tells the dramatic story of Leon Trotsky's final years in exile in Mexico. Shedding new light on Trotsky's tumultuous friendship with painter Diego Rivera, his affair with Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo, and his torment as his family and comrades become victims of the Great Terror, Trotsky: Downfall ofa Revolutionary brilliantly illuminates the fateful and dramatic life of one of history's most famous yet elusive figures.
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Good Trotsky Book, BAD conclusions at end
- By Darius on 02-09-15
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The Rasputin File
- By: Edvard Radzinsky, Judson Rosengrant - translator
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 22 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For almost a century, historians could only speculate about the role Grigory Rasputin played in the downfall of tsarist Russia. But in 1995 a lost file from the state archives turned up, a file that contained the complete interrogations of Rasputin's inner circle. With this extensive and explicit amplification of the historical record, Edvard Radzinsky has written a definitive biography, reconstructing in full the fascinating life of an improbable holy man who changed the course of Russian history.
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Good old Radzinsky
- By Babs on 03-13-18
By: Edvard Radzinsky, and others
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God's Jury
- The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Cullen Murphy
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Inquisition conducted its last execution in 1826-the victim was a Spanish schoolmaster convicted of heresy. But as Cullen Murphy shows in this provocative new work, not only did its offices survive into the twentieth century, in the modern world its spirit is more influential than ever.
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A balanced review based on new material
- By Sean on 05-15-12
By: Cullen Murphy
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The Bettencourt Affair
- The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal That Rocked Paris
- By: Tom Sancton
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Heiress to the nearly 40-billion-dollar L’Oréal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt was the world’s richest woman and the 14th wealthiest person. But her gilded life took a dark yet fascinating turn in the past decade. At 94, she was embroiled in what has been called the Bettencourt Affair, a scandal that dominated the headlines in France. Why? It’s a tangled web of hidden secrets, divided loyalties, frayed relationships, and fractured families, set in the most romantic city - and involving the most glamorous industry - in the world.
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A Juicy Chronicle
- By Jean on 10-24-17
By: Tom Sancton
What listeners say about In the Closet of the Vatican
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-10-19
Fascinating reading
A book that should be read or listened to by everyone with a catholic background.
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- Peter Bernard Hooper
- 02-25-20
As a Catholic myself the book has real force.
The writing style of the book is a mix of academic work, methodic and involved, and yet it steps back from being only thing by a large amount of story telling and reports of a large number of interviews If one was asked is this book primarily a psychological reflection or a sociological one, then sociology gets the tick in its box. A number of times Martel is able to point to how the story of the individual is linked to the problem and issue a whole society experiences and is required to face as a result of the telling of that individual's story. Finally there is one idea Martel offers which is noteworthy. He points to the presence of both gay people and non-gays in the Vatican but does not then argue there are two lobbies, one gay and the other straight. He observes while there are gay individuals, group formation for them, the capacity to be a political block is not there because that sexual orientation or interest can't be socially acknowledged. There is the ability for a political movement that attacks gays to be formed, and it is there in the Vatican, and it is populated by many who are homophile. There is permission for this group formation and Martel gives time to explain how this faction operates. This book is socking for some, as a Catholic the news that some in the Vatican are gay is no surprise, however the goings on, the things said and done, that can be indeed unsettling. A book which can be recommended to those who are willing to be open to what it offers.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Peter Francis DeFazio
- 12-04-22
in the closet of the church's very soul
What can I say? The few anecdotes that I know from reliable sources, the double-lived priests I know or have known, the vast culture of hypocrisy, and the reactionary leanings of so much of the church's leadership, coupled with the never-ending cover-ups of more and more sexual abuse cases involving prelates and priests lends much credence to Martel's journalism. American journalists do not muckrake like they did in the early 20th century, and even the Boston Globe's heroic Spotlight series stopped short of breaking open the walls to this cloistered bureaucracy, the house of secrets known as the Catholic Church. Frederic Martel and his team of able assistants were like a Trojan Horse invited into the very heart and soul of Catholicism, its nerve center behind the Vatican walls. Bravo. Now if only we can get every literate Catholic to read this book!
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- Lorenzo
- 04-09-19
What we've always known is true …. Mystery Babylon
Jesus will judge this 'abomination' harshly! All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.” Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues. For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.…
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6 people found this helpful
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- M. Voight
- 07-18-23
Riveting
Loved this. Absolutely amazing with straight up naming names and exposing the "hive" of the Vatican!
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- Anne Sanchez
- 04-23-19
Interresting , to a point
This book could and should have been written with only half the pages ... It is 576 pages long, that's 22 hours of reading ! The author spends pages after pages giving details that are not always necessary but that are repetitive. Also you get lost in the endless list of names. You lose interest in his argument because it so long , it's a bit like when you are in a maze and you realise you've been there for too long and you get tired of it. The prologue however really impressed me : it is both illuminating and beautifully written. Some portraits he draws of some cardinals are also very striking, sometimes downright hilarious. But definetly not a book I will ever read again.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-08-19
Gay agenda seeking in the end, but well researched
It is apparent in this book that Frederic Martel believes the Roman Catholic Church should abide by the postmodern standards of himself and many others. The Church, for example, should adopt a more open position toward queer, radically feminist, or liberation theologies and not be stuck in a past that, for Martel, would be riddled with errors. Martel is under the impression that teachings from the past are always in error because they are from the past and don't pass muster with his postmodern ideals. Martel doesn't realize that homosexual priests, religious, and laymen didn't sign up for a doctrine that accepts homosexual intercourse, but, for Martel, they should be allowed into dialogue with the Church in the end to change the Church's teaching on sexuality. Martel heavily criticizes popes prior to Francis who have asserted their authority in combatting the demoralizing sexual lapses of western culture since the past century. They were doing their job. Martel, as a journalist with postmodernist ideals, doesn't understand that the Church is not a democracy. Popes, bishops, and priests teach the faith as it is. The people, especially in the postmodern age, are given the choice to accept or reject the Gospel.
Like almost all journalists, Martel doesn't acknowledge the difference between the molestation of those too young to sexually respond (pedophilia) and the molestation of those barely old enough to sexually respond (ephebophilia). Martel liberally distributes the word pedophilia throughout his book when many cases in the Church dealt with an ephebophilia of a homosexual nature. This indicates the Church has an active homosexual problem more so than a pedophilia problem.
On the other hand, as popes, bishops, and priests teach the faith, they should live up to their standards, as Martel asserts, on what sexuality should be for Catholics. They haven't lived up to these standards, as Martel demonstrates. If not molesting young people themselves, clergy, especially in the episcopate, are covering up for clergy guilty of crimes. They preach against homosexual intercourse, encouraging homosexuals to live chaste lives, but their hypocrisy is blatant.
This is a discouraging work for faithful Catholics to read although they may not agree with Martel's commentary on the alleged facts. Martel exposes the active homosexuality in the Church and especially in the Vatican. It is a discouraging book as well for heterosexual men who wish to enter the priesthood. Heterosexual candidates for the priesthood may not experience active homosexuality in the seminary or amongst their priestly superiors whether they be in the faculty, administration, or at the home parish. But they will definitely come across a homophilia apparent throughout the clergy and the seminaries, as Martel aptly shows. I can attest to this as a former Roman Catholic seminarian.
I gave the book four out of five stars because I thought it was well-researched and well-written. It lacks one star due to the aggressive gay agenda for advocacy of doctrinal changes. Martel is a journalist with democratically journalistic ideals, but he is not a theologian.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-10-22
just wow
this was an eye opening look at the experiences of the community. the author's bravery and dedication to getting the full story was inspiring.
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- Jason
- 05-02-19
An engaging story of something not so secret!
First, the only drawback of this book is the amount of tangents and digressions. From the narrator to the interviewees, there are a lot of sequence breaks.
It may be a narration which turns to a quote. A quote that's reminiscing to a quote that they're making from someone else. That choppy flow with names (excellently pronounced) in multiple languages make this listen difficult to follow at times.
Aside from that, the book is amazing. It explains so much on how the Vatican came to be so gay. Why the contradictions with condemning homosexual acts but never punishing child molesters. It's complex and sad. And there's just so much. The absurdity to which some of these men exploited their power will have you yelling out loud.
But there are touching, humanizing points as well. The book is a emotional rollercoaster. I strongly recommend this book. Not because I'm gay or because I'm an atheist. But because it's a fascinating story about humans and their inner struggles.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Bowie
- 07-28-19
must read
well researched and well written by a keen observer. facts matter, and all over the world sunshine disinfects... give this one as a gift to someone you love!
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1 person found this helpful