As a Catholic how do you honestly deal with the Spanish Inquisition? How can you trust the 'Church'?

Question

PaulCyp - you should be ashamed of yourself. You are no different from those who deny that the Holocost took place. Christians should not spread propaganda or lie either.

Dear Meg M -- get your facts straight. I am not a Protestant. None of those in our spiritual heritage ever have been.

Secondly, it is obvious you are a blind emotional follower.

Answer 1

Modern historians have long known that the popular view of the Inquisition is true. However, in recent years, the Catholic Church through its apologists, pr agents and spin doctors have sought to incredibly re-position the inquisition as a "myth"- claiming a "the Inquisition was actually an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions."

Such arguments are purely evil and tantamount to claiming Hitler actually did the Jews, gypsies and others a "favour" with the holocaust. Nothing could be more perverse.

++The indisputable facts+++

(1181) That Pope Lucius III did establish procedures for Inquisitions as well as the conduct of torture.

(1198-1216) That Pope Innocent III did promote the Inquisition throughout Europe causing the murder of over one million (1,000,000) innocent people through terrible torture and public human sacrifice aimed at promoting the principles of Satanism.

(1198) That Pope Innocent III did issue a Papal Bull declaring "anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with church dogma must be burned without pity".

(1227-41) That Pope Gregory IX did establish the first of three Holy Inquisitions in 1232 using the false texts of witchcraft created by his predecessor Pope Honorius III as false evidence of the existence of an alternate “evil” to the Vatican. Approximately 650,000 are burned alive through public satanic rituals during his Papacy.

(1231) That Pope Gregory IX introduces for the first time in human history the twisted and unjust notion of "guilty until proven innocent" replacing the ancient common law notion of "innocent until proven guilty" which had existed for over 6,000 years. In addition, removes the right to counsel, the right to hear charges against an accused, the identity of the witnesses making the accusation and notification to family and/or friends that a person has been arrested by the inquisition. This model forms the basis of the Catholic model of the Gestapo interrogation.

(1272) That Pope Gregory X, also known as Blessed Gregory did issue a Papal Bull banning the discussion of any theological matter outside church, under the penalty of extreme torture, death by being burnt alive and forfeit of all property. This supremely evil church law has never been repealed and was the cause of many hundreds of thousands of people being murdered by the Catholic Church and their property seized.

(1272) Aquinas (1225-1274) publishes Summa Theologica which lays foundations for witchcraft trials by claiming men and women can have sexual intercourse with demons.

(1275-1894) That because of the deliberate false claims of Catholic philosophers, Popes in order to simplify the ending of marriage without any rights for women and their perpetual enslavement in a male dominated society, an estimated 9,000,000 witches, mostly women, are burned by Catholics and Protestants until 1894 when last European witch is executed.

(1326) That Pope John XXII did falsely claim the existence of organized evil outside of the Vatican and the Catholic Church by claiming in a Papal Bull the reality of Witchcraft. Furthermore, that the Pontiff did use the same satanic documents released by previous Popes and himself as evidence to support his claim that witches exist across Europe. That he declares witches, specifically females who show any sign of intuitive medical knowledge or gifts of detecting lies as enemies of Christianity.

(1481) That Pope Sixtus IV did authorize the Church to conduct the openly satanic ritual of auto-da-fé ("Act of Faith”) which introduced to the public the robes of the High Satanic Mass including hoods and caps as well as satanic pentagrams, burning crosses, public human sacrifice through burning and open blood spilling through beheading and strangulation. That this was first displayed in Seville in 1481. That the practice of priests conducting public ceremonies in satanic robes is still practiced today on certain feast days in certain Latin countries.

(1481-1517) Spanish Inquisition 13,000 are burned in 36 years during Spanish Inquisition; 17,000 are burned in effigy and 290,000 tortured, imprisoned or bankrupted.

(1481-1517) That Mass burnings of sometimes hundreds at a time and tens of thousands brutally tortured and murdered as auto-da-fé ("Act of Faith”) continues until the middle of the 16th Century.

(1486) That Pope Innocent VIII did publish the Papal Bull Malleus Maleficarum claims unbelief in witchcraft as heresy and women are more likely to become witches than men "because the female sex is more concerned with things of the flesh than men".

(1651-9) That under the orders and approval of Pope Innocent X, that the Roman Catholic Church did introduce a new method of human sacrifice for the purpose of satanism involving the use of ovens instead of burning at the stake. That 42 women are roasted in ovens as witches in Niesse, Germany; more than 1000 "witches", as young as 2, are executed in similar manner in Niesse in 9 years. That victims are drugged before being tied down to stretchers before waking up and being fully conscious during their horrendous murder. The success of this innovation is incorporated into the Vatican plan of “Final Solution” during the 1930’s and early 1940’s.

+++What is the real truth?+++

I leave it up to you and your readers whether you think the inquisition and the centuries of evil of the Vatican is just a terrible misunderstanding or the truth.

Answer 2

You act as if the Church, if it were really of God, would have a perfect record, doing everything right. How can this be when the Church is made up of saint and sinner alike?

The Church maintains it's infallibility on teaching Faith and Morals but the people are not guaranteed infallibility in trying to live the Church's infallible teachings on Faith and Morals.

Matt. 13:24-30 - scandals have always existed in the Church, just as they have existed outside of the Church. This should not cause us to lose hope in the Church. God's mysterious plan requires the wheat and the weeds to be side by side in the Church until the end of time.

Matt. 13:47-50 - God's plan is that the Church (the kingdom of heaven) is a net which catches fish of every kind, good and bad. God revealed this to us so that we will not get discouraged by the sinfulness of the Church’s members.

Matt. 16:18 - no matter how sinful its members conduct themselves, Jesus promised that the gates of death will never prevail against the Church.

Matt. 23:2-3 - the Jewish people would have always understood the difference between a person's sinfulness and his teaching authority. We see that the sinfulness of the Pharisees does not minimize their teaching authority. They occupy the "cathedra" of Moses.

Matt. 26:70-72; Mark 14:68-70; Luke 22:57; John 18:25-27 - Peter denied Christ three times, yet he was chosen to be the leader of the Church, and taught and wrote infallibly.

Mark 14:45 - Judas was unfaithful by betraying Jesus. But his apostolic office was preserved and this did not weaken the Church.

Mark 14:50 - all of Jesus' apostles were unfaithful by abandoning Him in the garden of Gethsemane, yet they are the foundation of the Church.

John 20:24-25 - Thomas the apostle was unfaithful by refusing to believe in Jesus' resurrection, yet he taught infallibly in India.

Rom. 3:3-4 - unfaithful members do not nullify the faithfulness of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

Eph. 5:25-27 - just as Jesus Christ has both a human and a divine nature, the Church, His Bride, is also both human and divine. It is the holy and spotless bride of Christ, with sinful human members.

1 Tim. 5:19 - Paul acknowledges Church elders might be unfaithful. The Church, not rebellion and schism, deals with these matters.

2 Tim. 2:13 - if we remain faithless, God remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself.

2 Tim. 2:20 - a great house has not only gold and silver, but also wood and earthenware, some for noble use, some for ignoble use.

Jer. 24:1-10 - God's plan includes both good and bad figs. The good figs will be rewarded, and the bad figs will be discarded.

1 Kings 6,7,8 - the Lord commands us to build elaborate places of worship. Some non-Catholics think that this is controversial and the money should be given to the poor, even though no organization does more for the poor of the world that the Catholic Church. We create our churches with beauty because Christ our King lives in the churches in the blessed Eucharist.

Matt. 26:8-9; Mark 14:4-5; John 12:5 - negative comments concerning the beauty of the Church are like the disciples complaining about the woman anointing Jesus' head with costly oil. Jesus desires that we honor Him with our best gifts, not for Him, but for us, so that we realize He is God and we are His creatures.

Matt. 26:10-11 - Jesus says we have both a duty to honor God and give to the poor - a balanced life of reverence and charity.

Answer 3

I trust the Church to teach the fullness of truth, which it has done consistently since the time of the Apostles. I don't trust Church leaders to never make a mistake. They are human after all. Even though the Inquisition is greatly exaggerated, and most of what people have heard about it is pure fiction, there were some excesses committed by misguided inquisitioners. Which is why the Pope put an end to it. But none of that has any bearing on the Church's mission to teach the truth (which in fact was the motive for the Inquisition). Would you rather have a Church founded by God Himself, that has taught the fullness of Christian truth for 2,000 years, and provides the holy sacraments that are the chief source of God's grace, but which made some tactical errors hundreds of years ago? Or, an unauthorized manmade tradition that is too recent to have been involved in the inquisitions, and which has fragmented into thousands of conflicting, contradicting manmade denominations where no-one can even agree on what constitutes the truth??

Also, you might consider that the number of people who lost their lives in all the Inquisitions that occurred is about the same as the number who were burned or hung as witches during the great witch hunts conducted by superstitious Protestants.
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Answer 4

Modern historians have long known that the popular view of the Inquisition is a myth. The Inquisition was actually an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions.

Heresy was a capital offense against the state. Rulers of the state, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw heretics as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath.

When someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig. It was not to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. The lord needed some basic theological training, very few did. The sad result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent judge of the crime.

The Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, an attempt to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges.

From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.

Most people tried for heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or had their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed.

If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.

Where did this myth come from? After 1530, the Inquisition began to turn its attention to the new heresy of Lutheranism. It was the Protestant Reformation and the rivalries it spawned that would give birth to the myth. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from the printing presses of Protestant countries at war with Spain accusing the Spanish Inquisition of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

The Spanish Inquisition was horrible. The Calvinist Genevan Inquisition was horrible. What my Irish Catholic ancestors suffered in the name of Protestant ism was horrible.The persecutions of Dhimmi by Muslims is horrible.However, the Stalinist,Maoist,Pol Pot and Albanian Communist Secularist Inquisitions were far far worse.
Henry Kamen,who is Jewish, has shown from the Spanish Archives that "the millions of those killed" by the Spanish State for Crypto-Judaism,CryptoIslam and heresies was wildly exagerrated. The number of executed was inbetween 3000-5000.
Also, the Catholic Church is in the forefront of those speaking out for religious freedom -not only for Catholics but also Non Catholics. Please read The Declaration on Religious Freedom in Vatican II.
I trust not churchmen but the Church,its teachings and all the good that Jesus has given me through the Church throughout my life.

Answer 6

The Inquisition is nothing to be proud of, but it does need to be taken in context. It occurred right after the Spanish "re-conquista" when Spain "re-conquered" back it's full territory from the Islamic Moors of Africa. The Moors held most of Spain for centuries, and it took over 700 years of war to expel them from Spain. It is the worlds longest recorded continuous war.
When the "reconquest" was done the country's king and queen turned inward and sought to "purge" their country of anything they perceived to be "un-Christian" and so consolidate their power and control over the newly liberated country.
It does not apologize for the atrocities of the inquisition, but we can not even begin to understand the anger,scope and violence that 700 years of occupation and war bred.
The Inquisition became the tool of the monarchy, not the church, and careful study of history will show you that the church itself gave refuge to many refugees fleeing Spain. Keep in mind that while Spain was just liberating itself from Muslim/Moor occupation Eastern Europe was trying to fend off Muslin invaders from the east. This did not make for an atmosphere of tolerance and even handedness.

Answer 7

I'm not Catholic , and I think the inquisition was WRONG,
but that was a long time ago, What about the Christians who have been drawn & quartered burned alive, nailed to crosses, boiled in oil, not only thousands of years ago, but in Non-Christan communist countries from the 1900's on people have and are murdered for confessing Christ.
remember Columbine, and thats here in the USA.

Answer 8

The Spanish Inquisition has been highly exaggerated by Protestant liars such as yourself.

Answer 9

I that death and torture are not exclusive to the Spanish inquisition. Or Catholicism.

Salem anyone?

Answer 10

raised catholic, i am personally ashamed. and not just at the spanish inqusition either. the church is one big hypocracy of self preservation.

i do not trust the catholic church at all.


and NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUSITION!

Answer 11

I don't and I think it should be banned. This seems to be a recurring theme not just with Catholics but Christians in general.