Speculation continued in Rome yesterday that the Pope will ask for forgiveness following the Church's role in the Inquisition, on Ash Wednesday of the year 2000.
According to a spokesman for the Catholic Press Office in Dublin, on March 8th, 2000 the Pope will lead a penitential procession from the Basilica of Santa Sabina to Rome's Circus Maximus where he will ask pardon for the Church's sins down through the ages.
It is believed in Rome that as well as the Jews, to whom Pope John Paul has already apologised for their treatment at the hands of Christians down the centuries, forgiveness will be sought for the Church's treatment of those it considered heretical under the Inquisition.
The Inquisition was a papal judicial institution set up in medieval times when the Church was at the zenith of its power in Europe and those it perceived as its enemies were deemed enemies of society. The Inquisition's brief was to actively seek out and eliminate heresy, including such things as alchemy, witchcraft, and sorcery.
Among its more famous victims was Galileo, who in 1633 eventually recanted his belief that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe. Pope John Paul has already apologised for the Church's treatment of Galileo. Others considered heretics were the Dominican priests Giordano Brune, burned at the stake in 1600, and Girolama Savonarola, who was executed in 1498. Savonarola is now said to be well on the road to beatification.
It was set up in 1231 by Pope Gregory IX. People brought before it were given a chance to confess and absolve themselves and, failing that, they were hauled before an inquisitor to be interrogated and tried. Witnesses were often brought along to corroborate allegations.
In 1252 Pope Innocent IV authorised the use of torture to extract confessions and the names of other heretics. Admission or confession of guilt led to sentences varying from an imposed fast, confiscation of property or life imprisonment. Those condemned but still refusing to recant were, as well as those who relapsed, handed over to the state for execution.
As an institution the medieval Inquisition functioned mainly in northern Italy and southern France, but in 1478 Pope Sixtus IV authorised the Spanish Inquisition at the request of local kings who wanted to combat apostate Jews and Muslims, as well as other heretics, and ensure political and religious unity in Spain. Soon the Spanish Inquisition's reputation for cruelty was such the Pope himself tried to curtail it, but with little effect.
The first Spanish grand inquisitor was the Dominican priest Tomas de Torquemada who was believed responsible for burning 2,000 people at the stake. In 1522 the Emperor Charles V (of Spain) attempted to introduce it to the Netherlands to wipe out Protestantism, but failed. Eventually, in 1808, Joseph Bonaparte suppressed the Spanish Inquisition. It was revived again, but finally suppressed in 1834.
A special Roman Inquisition was set up in 1542 by Pope Paul III to suppress Protestantism. Governed by the Congregation of the Inquisition, involving six cardinals, it was seen as an attempt to counterbalance the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition, then also holding sway throughout the greater part of Italy.
After Protestantism was eliminated as a threat to Italian religious unity, the Roman Inquisition became more and more concerned with simply maintaining good order and practice as well as the purity of the Catholic faith. In 1908, under Pope Pius X, the Inquisition became known as the Holy Office. That too changed in 1965 when Pope Paul IV named it the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Just recently the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, was reappointed to the congregation for a second term of five years. As reported in the current issue of The Irish Catholic he said he was "very honoured to have been reappointed by the Holy Father".
"Every generation has asked questions about the Catholic faith and what it means for its particular time and culture. The challenge for the congregation is to assist the Holy Father in his office as supreme teacher and guardian of the faith of the Church," he said.
Under the present Pope the congregation has been responsible for disciplining such theologians as Hans Kung and Charles Curran. It also excommunicated Father Tissa Balasuriya of Sri Lanka for his writings on original sin and the Virgin Mary. That excommunication has since been revoked.
At a recent conference in Bologna, and reflecting on the congregation's role, its Prefect (head), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said: "May the Lord help us to understand that the Church must not make martyrs but be a church of martyrs."