For Research, or Control?

USA Today is reporting, this morning, that the Vatican, and other “experts” of various stripes, are collaborating on a project regarding the Inquistion.  According to the Vatican, and the Pope, the following are the main reasons why this little project is being undertaken.

"Earlier this year the Vatican presented researchers’ findings that victims of torture and burning at the stake during the Inquisition were far fewer than widely thought.

Pope John Paul II has noted that the Catholic Church has asked pardon for “errors” committed during the Inquisition, while noting there is need to find out how much popular impressions of the period are rooted in reality."

I think the actual impetous, for this little project, is more straightforwardly articulated by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

"Such a vast operation, never before attempted, is of great importance in responding to new orientations in international research on the control of religious ideas in medieval and modern Europe,..." (bold added by ed.)

“Vatican kicks off Inquisition research project"

Posted by on 11/10 at 07:46 AM

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