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Render unto Rome
- The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church
- Narrated by: Jason Berry
- Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
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Publisher's summary
An investigation of epic finanical intrigue, Render unto Rome exposes the secrecy and deceit that run counter to the values of the Catholic Church.
The Sunday collection in every Catholic church throughout the world is as familiar a part of the Mass as the homily and even Communion. There is no doubt that, historically, the Catholic Church has been one of the great engines of charity in history. But once a dollar is dropped in that basket, where does it go? How are weekly cash contributions that can amount to tens of thousands of dollars accounted for? Where does the money go when a diocese sells a church property for tens of millions of dollars? And what happens when hundreds of millions of dollars are turned over to officials at the highest ranks, no questions asked, for their discretionary use?
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest organization in the world. The Vatican has never revealed its net worth, but the value of its works of art, great churches, property in Rome, and stocks held through its bank easily run into the tens of billions. Yet the Holy See as a sovereign state covers a mere 108 acres and has a small annual budget of about $280 million.
No major book has examined the Church’s financial underpinnings and practices with such journalistic force. Today the Church bears scrutiny by virtue of the vast amounts of money (nearly $2 billion in the United States alone) paid out to victims of clergy abuse. Amid mounting diocesan bankruptcies, bishops have been selling off whole pieces of the infrastructure—churches, schools, commercial properties—while the nephew of one of the Vatican’s most powerful cardinals engaged in a lucrative scheme to profiteer off the enormous downsizing of American Church wealth.
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Rob Schenck’s extraordinary life has been at the center of the intersection between evangelical Christianity and modern politics. Attacked by partisans on both sides of the aisle, he has been called a "right-wing hate monger", the "ultimate D.C. power-broker", a "traitor", and "turncoat." Now, this influential spiritual adviser to America’s political class chronicles his controversial, sometimes troubling career in this revelatory and often shocking memoir. He reflects on his path to God, his unconscious abandonment of his principles, and his return to the convictions that guide him.
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One of the most moving testimonials ever heard!
- By E. Wright on 07-10-18
By: Rob Schenck
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Road to Jonestown
- Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
- By: Jeff Guinn
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a curious blend of the gospel and Marxism. His congregation was racially mixed, and he was a leader in the early civil rights movement. Eventually, Jones moved his church, Peoples Temple, to northern California, where he got involved in electoral politics and became a prominent Bay Area leader. But underneath the surface lurked a terrible darkness.
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An Important Accurate Historical Report
- By Julia on 08-24-17
By: Jeff Guinn
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Contempt
- A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation
- By: Ken Starr
- Narrated by: Ken Starr
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty years after the Starr Report and the Clinton impeachment, former special prosecutor Ken Starr finally shares his definitive account of this period in American history. Now Starr finally shares his unique perspective on the investigation that began with the Whitewater land deal and spread to a wide range of President Clinton's actions, including accusations of sexual harassment and perjury in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Starr's narrative includes behind-the-scenes details that have never before emerged as well as a new analysis from the perspective of history.
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Thought provoking and honest!
- By Sarah on 09-13-18
By: Ken Starr
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None of the Above
- The Untold Story of the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed, and the Criminalization of Educators
- By: Shani Robinson, Anna Simonton
- Narrated by: Lisa Renee Pitts
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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An insider’s account of the infamous Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal that scapegoated black employees for problems caused by an education reform movement that is increasingly a proxy for corporate greed.
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A well constructed story
- By Sumo Steve on 03-21-19
By: Shani Robinson, and others
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The Rockefellers
- By: Peter Collier, David Horowitz
- Narrated by: Michael Anthony
- Length: 30 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Against a richly detailed backdrop of history, the story of this unique American family unfolds. It begins with John D. Rockefeller Sr., who amassed a fortune amid the muck and disorder of the Pennsylvania oil fields and left his son to deal with the public outcry.
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Too Long
- By Rohit on 05-25-07
By: Peter Collier, and others
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The Fall of the House of FIFA
- The Multimillion-Dollar Corruption at the Heart of Global Soccer
- By: David Conn
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2015, FIFA - the multibillion dollar governing body of the world's most-loved sport - was brought down by allegations of industrial-scale bribes, kickbacks, money laundering, racketeering, and tax evasion. Beginning with early morning raids in Zurich and the indictment of 27 executives by the US Department of Justice, the rottenness at the core of FIFA seemed to extend throughout all of soccer, from the decision to send the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar to lesser known cases of embezzlement from Trinidad to South Africa.
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quite good
- By kevin m on 12-14-17
By: David Conn
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Out of Mao's Shadow
- The Struggle for the Soul of a New China
- By: Philip P. Pan
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Prize-winning journalist Philip P. Pan offers an unprecedented inside look at the momentous battle underway for China's future. On one side is the entrenched party elite determined to preserve its authoritarian grip on power. On the other is a collection of lawyers, journalists, entrepreneurs, activists, hustlers, and dreamers striving to build a more tolerant, open, and democratic China.
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Great insight into changes in China
- By Paul on 04-14-09
By: Philip P. Pan
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The Woman Behind the New Deal
- The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience
- By: Kirstin Downey
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Frances Perkins is no longer a household name, yet she was one of the most influential women of the 20th century. Based on extensive archival materials, new documents, and exclusive access to Perkins' family members and friends, this biography is the first complete portrait of a devoted public servant with a passionate personal life, a mother who changed the landscape of American business and society.
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An Absorbing Biography
- By Jean on 08-16-17
By: Kirstin Downey
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Putin Country
- A Journey into the Real Russia
- By: Anne Garrels
- Narrated by: Anne Garrels
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia, Garrels crafts an intimate portrait of the nation's heartland. We meet ostentatious mafiosos, upwardly mobile professionals, impassioned activists, scheming taxi drivers with dark secrets, and beleaguered steel workers. We discover surprising subcultures, like the LGBT residents of Chelyablinsk who bravely endure an upsurge in homophobia fueled by Putin's rhetoric of Russian "moral superiority" yet still nurture a vibrant if clandestine community of their own.
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Interesting dive into Russia today
- By Keith on 03-25-16
By: Anne Garrels
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Bushwhacked
- Life in George W. Bush's America
- By: Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In their second book on our current White House occupant, Ivins and Dubose take the wire brush to the Bush presidency and show how he has applied the same flawed strategies he used in governing Texas to running the largest superpower in the world.
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Richly informative & entertaining...
- By Native Texan on 10-29-03
By: Molly Ivins, and others
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A Woman in Charge
- The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton
- By: Carl Bernstein
- Narrated by: Dick Rodstein
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Carl Bernstein's stunning portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton shows us, as nothing else has, the true trajectory of her life and career, with its zigzag bursts of risks taken and safety sought. Marshaling all the skills and energy that propelled his history-making Pulitzer Prize reporting on Watergate, Bernstein gives us the most detailed, sophisticated, comprehensive, and revealing account of Hilary Rodham Clinton yet.
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in depth and well-written
- By Katherine on 07-20-07
By: Carl Bernstein
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Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
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He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
What listeners say about Render unto Rome
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Boyd
- 07-08-14
Too close to home
If you could sum up Render unto Rome in three words, what would they be?
Touches home closely.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The narration.
What does Jason Berry bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
A deeper view of the financial effects of the pedophile scandal.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
I have no idea
Any additional comments?
None
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1 person found this helpful
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- jeanie
- 02-11-17
good book but hard to follow at some points.
Good book with a lot of detail and examples. There are some parts where it's hard to follow who is who since there are so many characters. Overall good listening!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Isabella R
- 09-24-13
Exploitation Of The Most Vulnerable
In Render Unto Rome, Berry writes about money; but as with his previous books, is not so much a book about ‘what happened’ but why.
What happened reads more like a thriller than investigative journalism.
But Render Unto Rome, like Berry’s other books, the refrain remains the same: money, sex and power; but mostly POWER.
Berry continues to educate the average catholic who may not have been physically raped, but have been financially and spiritually raped by the Vatican.
Exhaustively researched, insightful analysis and personally and spiritually powerful.
However, the real importance of this book is laying open the continuing struggle for power and the struggle for what the Roman Catholic Church will look like for generations to come.
While the focus is mostly on the The Legionaries of Christ, the book charts a trend toward a more cultic Roman Catholicism, a personality driven Roman Catholicism, and a decades long shift of power from the curia and religious orders towards personal and lay apostolates like the Legionaries, Opus Dei, Communion and Liberation, Regnum Christi, and Focolare (there are significant differences between these apostolates, but they are all neo-conservative, and in Pope Francis’ words- are loosely bound by their "ideologization" and "exploitation" of the traditional Latin Mass and all things anti-Vatican II.
But the most important revelation is not the mind boggling amounts of money and the hubris of the hierarchy, but the exploitation of the most vulnerable-those for whom the church is supposed to exist to ‘save’.
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4 people found this helpful
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- TIMOTHY K Ryan
- 10-03-18
Unbelievable!
As an active Catholic Priest for the past 56 years this book is unbelievable.
It reports an account of lots of decent Priests and People and so many others in high places living in a world and a value system far removed from the teachings of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount!
FR Timothy K Ryan
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2 people found this helpful
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- John
- 01-27-15
Wandering
listened for 12 hours and gave up. Too much detail for a person with casual interest in the topic. Story doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
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1 person found this helpful