No, I haven't seen the movie, or read the book, but its in the news and I was prompted to think about the Roman Catholic Church. The RC Church is remarkable in that it is the oldest administrative organization in the world, with an unbroken, relatively stable and carefully documented history going back almost two millenia. Now THAT is an accomplishment!

There are older religions, true, The Jewish faith has been operational much longer, especially remarkable in that its institutions have been recognizable and continuous for much longer. Pharonic Egyptian society and culture had an essentially continuous history too, but except for perhaps the individual Dynasties, there were breaks in the sequence. There are probably Buddhist and Hindu institutions of comparable temporal span, but certainly not with the same spatial dimensions. But the RCC has an uninterrupted command structure, hierarchy and organization that has been a feature of European, then world, civilization since the final days of the Roman Empire, from which it derives many of its characteristics. The Romans were managerial geniuses, so this is not surprising. They also probably inspired much in the Eastern Orthodox Church, but I know next to nothing about them so I will leave them out of my remarks.

In today's apocalyptic and conspiratorial world, organizations like the Templars, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Priory of Sion and the New York Yankees have a grip on our minds far exceeding their actual impact on history. But the RC Church is right up there with even the great fictional Orders, such as Frank Herbert's Bene Gesserit, which clearly are based on Catholic monastic orders. From a purely management standpoint, there is much to be learned from the Church of Rome. It has been a leader in Christendom (in fact, for most of its history, it has been Christendom) and it has managed to do so with basically only four main levels of hierarchy (priest, bishop, archbishop and pope). No doubt, the spiritual role of the Church has played a great role in this longevity, but surely there must be more to it than that.
No other religion can match its record.

I was never raised as a Catholic, and although of Latin American background, have never been exposed much to the RC church. Perhaps someone here with some experience of that faith might care to comment on how their experience of the Church can shed some light on the longevity and stability of this remarkable organization.