How can the CATHOLIC CHURCH justify the Inquisition?

Question

Not to mention the thousands of murders that have been done in the name of the Church, the Pope, or Christ.

Answer 1

It is something they are not at all proud about to be sure and do not justify it in this day and age. However you have to look at the standards of the times and the philosophies of life in the middle ages through the Reniassance. The Western world believed in the concept of the chain of being with God at the top, under him the Kings followed by clergy, artisans, peasants etc. Church and politics were totally intertwined and that is how they saw things.

The Roman Catholic church set up the Inquisiton to stamp out "hersesy " which they precieved was a dangerous threat to the social fabric of those times much like the later Capitalist world felt about the rise of communism later on or as we do about radical religions today. To defend their positions our as we defend our positions many people do die and the evils are justified in that time frame.

One thing worth mentioning is that the Roman Catholic Church was again trying to stamp out heresy. The attitude and persecution toward witches, werelocks and werewolves was taken care of by the protestant chuches. Even in those days of superstition, the catholic church felt that people who had these powers were quite off their rockers to say the least.
The likes of Matthew Hopkins through to Salem had nothing to do with the Church of Rome.

Be that as it may, many people who wrote about the inquisition were from England and other protestant countries who were mortal enemies of Spain and especially the Pope.
Some historians feel their numbers of killed by the inquistion. were greatly inflated as were the numbers of witches put to death. If one takes the time to look at the figures 2/3 of the population of Europe must have died by the inquisitors or those witch finder generals.

Regards,

Michael Kelly

Answer 2

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 3

The Inquisition became run through the authorities of the rustic of Spain. It became no longer some thing managed through the Roman Catholic church. that would nicely be like asking at the same time as the Catholic church has no longer justified the waterboarding of prisoners in Gitmo. They were no longer those who did it. in truth, it became an uncomplicated prepare to attraction to the church and the Pope for deliverance from the Inquisition, and it became the Catholic church that very last close them down.

Answer 4

Why do you feel the Church MUST justify the Inqisition?

As many people who have been killed because of, real or imagined, non-compliance to the Catholic Church, what about the thousands of people who were slaughtered because they were Catholic?

I am not trying to justify evil with evil. What we have here is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Secular society thinks it is "all that". It is in "all that" which secular society believes itself to have obtained the power of life and death over it's subjects. This is humanistic self-rigthteousness at it's worse.

The Catholic Church has NEVER claimed it's members to be perfect. The Catholic Church can, by the Divine Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, teach infallibly on matters concerning Faith and Morals through the Pope and bishops in union with him. But, again, this does not mean every Catholic is going to carry out these teachings perfectly.

The Bible contains information concerning controversies within the Catholic Church itself. A better understanding of these teachings will show my it is not right to justify legit mistakes:

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 5

The Church cannot justify any of the heinous killings that have been done in her name no more than any of the religions including the Protestants. There have been no killings in the name of the Pope though for your information. The Pope at the time of the Inquisition sent out St. Bernard of Clairvoix to try to rein in the viciousness of Torquemada and his like. There is always somethings that is not revealed to the general public by the media or "historians" because it may rebut some of the charges laid at the feet of the Church. The Church has always had her enemies and I think I am addressing one now.

Answer 6

Which Inquistion the Medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the Portuguese Inquisition or the Roman Inquisition?

there were political reasons behind all of them (take some history classes) and mostly done on the level of local ordinaries and local nobility or monorachies. Each is very specific to their region and time. You cannot lump them all together, but if you don't understand that I doubt you will understand the political conflicts behind them.

P.S. They do not attempt to justify them, they have issued formal official apologies for them.

Answer 7

Parts of the Bible glorifies war and killings even to the point of sacrificing their own sons. Murder is in the very first part of the Bible and has been with us through out the ages. It can't be justified by me but the people that use the Bible to explain everything would not have much problem finding a Bible passage to quote for their point.

Answer 8

It/we can't. The Catholic Church - like all religions - is led by human belings who sometimes screw up... in those cases, it was truly terrible and shameful. All we can do is learn from the past, not repeat our mistakes, and move forward.

Answer 9

it was hundreds of years ago. get over it. at the time it was justified by the masses. the masses believed if you werent christian then any torment you witnesses here on earth was nothign to the torment in the afterlife. but again it was hundreds of years ago, it is no longer being done. get over it.

Answer 10

It doesn't.

But you cannot judge things past through the lens of today.