Concise Title: Anti-Catholic Myths: Slavery, Crusades, Inquisition, Galileo, Holocaust

A nearly unimaginable rapidity of communications with an at-times slow, even glacial, movement of ideas is one curious feature of our times. Narratives that have lost any genuine explanatory power, along with the biased historical scholarship of earlier centuries, have become entrenched in the minds of millions, seemingly immune from being dislodged. Such simplistic queries as "What about Galileo?" "What about the Crusades?" are still meant to draw Catholics up short, a conversation-stopper. Scholarship of recent decades, however, has thrown new light on these matters, and is finally allowing the truths of history to become more widely known.

In his new book, Five Anti-Catholic Myths, Gerard Verschuuren has written an extremely valuable and thoughtful response to issues Catholics encounter from an often doubtful and cynical world. Each of these five myths is well researched and thoroughly covered, avoiding excessive defensiveness, yet insisting on fairness and accuracy from our critics. This book is a gift to Catholics, historians, and also to critics who seek thorough and thoughtful analysis, as stated by Msgr. Charles Pope, a columnist and blogger for Our Sunday Visitor, and pastor at Holy Comforter–St. Cyprian Parish, Washington, DC.

Russell Shaw, a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and adjunct professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, believes that "Is anti-Catholicism the last acceptable prejudice in America? In Five Anti-Catholic Myths, Gerard Verschuuren provides a clear, forceful, and eminently factual refutation of some of the foundational slurs aimed at the Church. Here is apologetics that is timely, intelligent, and done with a flare."

According to Mary Ann Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard, "it must be hard for Catholics brought up on movies and TV to avoid the impression that their Church holds a special niche in some historical hall of shame." Donald T. DeMarco, Professor Emeritus at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, expresses gratitude to Gerard Verschuuren for correcting this unfortunate misconception, stating that "He has provided anyone interested in being liberated from anti-Catholic mythology a valuable service. Five Anti-Catholic Myths is readable, reliable, and rewarding."

The five myths analyzed in this book have each been shaped by post-Reformation propaganda and Enlightenment prejudices and their residual effects. With Gerard Verschuuren's new book, Catholics now have sure and ready replies to these baneful narratives, allowing the truths of history to become more widely known.

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