Topic:  How do Catholics view the Inquisition?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: August 15, 2004

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:  How does the Catholic Church deal with the tragedy of the Inquisition? Was it right to persecute and sometimes execute heretics? Etc...

Answer: 

Thanks for your question about the Inquisition.

The Inquisition was an attempt on the part of the Catholic Church to share the Truth of the Gospel with those who did not appear to share that Truth. As with many enterprises that may have noble motives, the Inquisition did, in fact, go astray, as the result of human sinfulness.

The Scripture says that the Church is the pillar and bulwark of Truth (I Timothy 3:15), and the Catholic Church has always taken that responsibility and privilege seriously. Throughout its history, the Church has tried a variety of ways to teach and to spread that Divine Truth. Essentially the work of missionaries, of teachers, of evangelists, and yes, even of the inquisitors was a series of attempts to be the pillar and bulwark of Truth. By spreading the Gospel, by teaching the Faith, by correcting those in error, Catholics have long believed that we were fulfilling the imperative imposed by I Timonthy 3:15, as well as by the Lord Jesus Himself when he tells His disciples to go into all the world.

The Inquisition was, to be sure, a sad chapter in the Catholic Church's venerable history of trying to spread the Good News of Jesus. My own sense is that two issues converged to make the Inquisition what it ultimately was seen to be.

On the one hand, the Church believed at about the time of the Inquisition that it was in a life-and-death struggle against powerful forces which, it believed, were intent on killing Christianity. So, the Catholic Church believed, so to speak, that it should "fight fire with fire." I am reminded of Senator Barry Goldwater's comment in the 1960s that went something like, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Analogously, the Inquisitors believed that most any means were justifiable in their defense of the true Christian faith. I didn't really agree with Senator Goldwater, and I don't really agree with the Inquisitorial position. Nevertheless, given the fear which dominated the world at that time, I can "see" why the Inquisitors may have felt justified. Living in post-9/11 America, we see some people who are saying that depriving society of freedom is justified given the potential threat to the existence of the country and its culture. This point-of-view, similar to that of the Inquisitors, is as wrong-headed today as it was back then -- in my opinion.

On the other hand, the power of the Catholic Church, especially on the Iberian Penninsula, and particularly after the victory over the Moors, gave some of the more zealous advocates of the Inquisition the apparatus of both Church and State to advance their agenda. Such a combination of religion with the coercive power of government is rarely a good thing. And when that government combined with that religion is virtually all-powerful, the result can be quite deliterious as it surely was in the case of the Inquisition. Again, certain parallels may be seen in the attempt to juxtapose religion and government by some on the religious right in the United States today. An even more dangerous combination can be seen in the Fundamentalism which drives terrorist organizations.

The lessons of the Inquisition are not, obviously, just historical. They have significance for us today as well. Thank you for inviting us to think about them again.

Having said all of that, I would conclude by remarking on God's ways and our ways. A constant of the Biblical insight is that God's ways are NOT our ways. The cliche makes the point rather well: God writes straight with crooked lines. While the Inquisition is a blight on the history of Catholicism, God has continued to use the Catholic Church to bring people closer to Jesus, to sustain us in good times and in bad, and to inspire millions to work for justice in the world.

Blessings!