Contrary to what Maltese claims the Catholic Church is far from the secretive conspiracy mongering institution that is portrayed in the Da Vinci Code.
The oldest writings of the Church are the letters of Paul who died about 69C.E. The respective canonical gospels where complete by the end of the first century. This is not Vatican doctrine, Protestant and secular scholars generally agree.
To study the beginning of Christianity you need to study the first century sources first, This rules out The Da Vinci Code since most of the sources that it cites are no earlier than the late second century. These other "gospels" contain practically no narrative, merely concerned putting words in the mouth of Christ that support certain esoteric movements that existed at that time.
These "gnostic" movements were not even monotheistic, believing that the world was created by a crude "demiurge" and one needed special knowledge ,"gnosis" in order to be saved. Mary of Magdaline was concider ed a disciple because she "became a man", according to one such "gospel".
Vatican conspiracies are little more than " Arguments of Diversion" meant to attempt to shift the burden of proof from weak or non existant evidence to the opposing arguer
As for the Catholic Church's desire for "blind zealotry" or "religious fervor", I concider this an insult. I am a 51 year old College graduate (B.A. Sociology, S.H.S.U.) and retired from law enforcement. I am also an EX Infantry officer and an adult convert to Catholicism.
Maltese claims to have studied this subject for 25 years, what do you concider research?
Books like "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," by Baigent,Leigh and Lincoln fall short.
As for "the Da Vinci Code" I'll assume he spelled his name right, that's about as true as he gets.
