Another Attempt to Whitewash the Inquisition
A recent Newsweek article states that the Vatican has staged an exhibition to shed new light on the Inquisition. As might be expected, the exhibition was a public relations exercise which tried both to appear transparent and to show “that the Inquisition wasn’t so bad after all”. “Church authorities”, says the article, “unveiled a temporary ‘Rare and Precious’ exhibition at Rome’s Vittoriano Museum to ‘expose some myths’ about this dark chapter of its past.” “The ‘rare and precious’ artifacts do not include notorious objects like racks or impaling tools. . . . This isn’t the first time that the church has tried to show that the judges of the Inquisition were not as brutal as previously believed.”
The Vatican, of course, commissioned the Inquisition to search out, interrogate, and punish those it viewed as heretics, and consequently many thousands were killed, or rather murdered. Between 1481 and 1808, in Spain alone, 31 912 people were executed – according to Llorente, the priest who was General Secretary of the Inquisition from 1789 to 1801 and its historian. We have reason to believe that this figure, although it appears precise, should be higher, and that one should also include the great number who died as a result of torture and imprisonment.
Lord Acton, a Roman Catholic, wrote in 1884: “The principle of the Inquisition is the Pope’s sovereign power over life and death. Whoever disobeys him should be tried and tortured and burnt. If this cannot be done, formalities may be dispensed with, and the culprit may be killed like an outlaw. That is to say, the principle of the Inquisition is murderous.”
The Newsweek article concludes, “Monsignor Alejandro Cifres of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [the present name for the Inquisition],
who co-curated the show, won’t say what else is still in the archives. The pieces on display, he says, ‘are the most representative of the Church’s motives and actions.’ For those seeking the ultimate truth about the Inquisition, that answer is unlikely to be enough.”
True – but “there is a God in heaven” who knows the truth. And He will not be slack in avenging the blood of His saints “who loved not their lives unto the death”. “For true and righteous are His judgements: for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand” (Rev 19:2). NMR
Papal Primacy Re-asserted
The Pope has again highlighted this issue. On 5 March he publicly referred to the importance of Pope Leo I as one who “tirelessly promoted the primacy of Rome because he knew its necessary role in maintaining the unity of the Churches”. He quoted Leo’s statement: “What was communicated to all the apostles was entrusted to only one of them [Peter]”, adding that he himself was “an authentic heir of the Apostle Peter”.
The Pope stressed that the primacy of the bishop of Rome had been recognised by the Eastern bishops in the past and is as “necessary” in the Church today as in the past. He made these statements on the day before a meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. This may seem contrary to his stated intention to make a priority of regaining the Orthodox Church, but it is a natural sequel to the joint statement between the Vatican and Orthodox Church leaders in November, declaring that the pope has primacy over all Roman Catholic and Orthodox bishops.
This claim of papal primacy is based on the false teaching that the Apostle Peter was the “prince and chief of the apostles”, and also the first bishop of Rome, and that his “primacy” has passed down from him to the present bishop of Rome, Benedict XVI. This audacious and intolerant claim of the Pope to be the visible head of the Church of Christ, and even ruler of all men, still stands. Vatican I pronounced, “If then any should deny that . . . the Roman Pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter in this primacy, let him be anathema”. That curse has never been lifted.
According to Rome’s wresting of Scripture and twisted logic, it follows that, to be truly a Christian, one must be subject to the pope. This is what successive popes have categorically stated. Boniface VIII pronounced, “I declare it to be altogether necessary to salvation that every human creature should be subject to the Roman Pontiff”. And John XXIII said in 1958: “Into this fold of Jesus Christ [containing those who are saved] no one can enter if [he is] not under the guidance of the Sovereign Pontiff.”
May the eyes of the devotees of Rome and deluded nominal Protestants
be opened to see that these wicked and oppressive claims are false, and to look beyond popes and priests to Christ Himself. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). NMR