The Roman Catholic Church has a long tradition of policing its own, however poorly it may have done the job. The hierarchy fought hard for the privilege as soon as Christianity was first legalized by the Roman Empire, and has guarded it jealously ever since. During the Middle Ages, in most countries, clerics were to be tried in ecclesiastical courts, and if found guilty, sent to ecclesiastical prisons run by the Inquisition. Back in 1998, he summoned a group of 50 tame scholars, let them peek into the depths of the Vatican Secret Archives, and issue a report of nearly 800 pages.

Inquisition:

Not surprisingly, the experts’ learned verdict was that the poor Inquisition had been sadly misjudged. The report found, for example, that there had been trials of some 125,000 suspected heretics in Spain, only 1% — a mere 1,250 — had been executed. And in Portugal, only 5.7% of the 13,000 tried had been condemned. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as everyone had always said; and anyway the Church didn’t burn all those people, the State did.

What a load of rubbish! The Inquisition was simply the most diabolical institution ever created by humanity, and the state was for the most part merely its tool. For the pope to demur on the depths of the Inquisition’s evil is like the chancellor of Germany refusing to condemn the Holocaust. Both are great, unspeakably horrible spiritual scars on humanity’s collective soul whose wickedness cannot be fully comprehended.

The Inquisition might arguably be considered an even worse evil than the Holocaust. Though the number of victims of the latter was higher, without the Inquisition’s example of deliberate, bureaucratic oppression, the Holocaust would not have been so easily imaginable. Not just in its grandiose intent and direct tactics such as the use of spies and parish registers but even in the some of the most minor details. For instance, yellow tunics called “sanbenitos” that the Inquisition made some penitents publicly wear inspired the yellow stars of David that Jews were forced to don in the ghettoes, as well as the colored triangles that distinguished the various categories of inmates in the camps.

The Inquisition took several forms at various times, chiefly papally-run in the medieval period, and much more an instrument of political power in its later Roman and Spanish incarnations. But in one guise or another, it terrorized large sections of Europe for well over half a millennium. Threatening rich and poor alike, cleric and lay; kings and bishops fell under its scrutiny equally as wandering clerics and errant knights. Mighty lords, even entire religious orders approved by the pope like the Knights Templar, could be summoned at any time and crushed without mercy for suspicions of which they would not be told. Nor could they resist.

Perhaps it was inevitable in a religion that placed such emphasis on the torture and execution suffered by its founder. Jesus, too, had been arrested by the religious authorities for heresy and then killed by the civil rulers for rebellion. For hundreds of years thereafter, Christianity had been ruthlessly oppressed by the Roman Empire. Many missionaries had died horribly converting the invading barbarians later as well. Finally, after a prolonged effort of centuries, the continent had been baptized into a common faith. Christianity began to remake Europe in its own image.

Was the Inquisition, then, some sort of revenge for the ages of persecution? Was it a form of psychological repetition of the trauma? Did the omnipresent depictions of the crucifixion used everywhere in the Latin Church, the constant emphasis on the betrayal and murder of Christ lead to some sort of psychological need to re-enact it repeatedly? Did the fear of hell make them create a real one on Earth? Like the thirst for red martyrdom in the early Church, or the recent biblical gore-fest, The Passion of the Christ, there is an unhealthy and morbid sadism somehow involved.

In any case, the Inquisition was an iron reign of terror like none ever before. It marked the triumph of papal politics but also the fatal weakness that was hidden at its very heart: the fact that the pope’s power depended solely on the consent of the faithful.

The medieval Inquisition came into being by 1233, at the behest of Pope Gregory IX, the violent culmination of a long process of confronting heresy. Under his predecessor, the imperial Pope Innocent III, the papacy had recently attained a temporary supremacy of sorts over the German emperors and other secular powers who had often, in the pope’s view, flirted with heresy by doing totally unacceptable things like choosing their own bishops. Innocent did his best to make sure that Rome would stay on top by creating the canonical and organizational groundwork for an international strike force of trusted agents that could go anywhere to drag anyone off to their secret detention centers where they could use any means necessary to extract the truth. (Sound familiar?)

Such extreme measures were needed, it was universally believed, because of the rise of heresy. As the Church became richer in the Middle Ages, corruption grew, and the old standards of piety and ascetic purity declined. Many reformers sought to reverse this by appealing past the intermediacy of the Church directly to the Gospel and its emphasis on the poor. Some even organized their followers into orders. A fortunate few, like Francis of Assisi, obtained a sympathetic hearing and approval. While some of his followers went on to become heretics when they denied the Church’s right to property, others were co-opted by that same Church to serve as persecutors. Some would-be reformers, like Peter Waldo of Lyons, were less lucky or perhaps more opinionated, having read the Bible for themselves, and were duly condemned.

Old heresies like Manicheanism also resurfaced in new forms like Catharism and the Albigensians. These were even more world-denying than medieval Catholicism, which is no mean feat. The extreme asceticism of their clergy, the perfecti, contrasted poorly with the established and worldly Catholics, whom they saw as servants of a false creator god.

The Christian hierarchy saw this as an assault from without, blaming wandering minstrels and returning Crusaders, who may indeed have a hand in spreading it along with the Bogomils, Manichean missionaries from Bulgaria. It is from their alleged sexual practices that the word “bugger” is said to come.

The cardinals suspected, however, that there was an organization from outside Christendom behind it all. Indeed there may have been. Modern scholarship has found evidence that the claim that there was a “Cathar pope” directing operations before the Muslim invasion from what is now Bosnia may have been accurate. Thus, the Church realized it was in a struggle for the very soul of Europe, and was willing to do whatever it took to retain its control.

To be called a heretic in the Middle Ages was a deadly serious business. Due to the intertwining of Church and State, to be at odds with one was to deny the other also. Heresy, a crime of the soul, was treason, and treason, heresy. As St. Thomas Aquinas confidently wrote, “If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy.”

Princes were thus often anxious to co-operate and prove their orthodoxy, if only to keep suspicion from themselves. For the Church said a heretic could not hold any office legitimately; indeed, his lands and property were legally forfeit to whatever good Christian could seize them.

The Inquisition got its bloody start during the long and vicious Albigensian Crusade, where southern France was devastated by a coalition of greedy lords from the north. There was a basic problem distinguishing devout Catholics from heretic Cathars, which inspired one crusader to say, “Slay them all, God will know his own,” and act accordingly.

Heresy was a thought-crime, a subversive attitude against God’s church, but hard to detect as it often masqueraded as holiness. Heretics craftily spoke in code and so had to be tricked into exposing themselves, hence the use of torture in interrogation, secret accusations, spies, and long-term surveillance.

Looks like Vatican's murderers doesn't stoped with the end of Inquissition, but has continued until this days, by conspirating against the mankind, serving the unholy and .... commiting a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II (1920- ) is said to be the most recognized person in the world. He is the most traveled Pope in the 2,000 year history of the Church and speaks eight languages. Born Karol Joseph Wojtyla (pronounced Voy-tee-wah) in Wadowice, Poland on May 18, 1920 to an administrative officer in the Polish army and a former schoolteacher. In 1978, at the age of 58 the College of Cardinals elected him to lead the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first non-italian chosen as Pope in 456 years and the youngest in this century. At age 61 he suffered serious wounds during an assassination attempt.

There have been 78 canonized popes in the history of the Church, and 9 others who are currently blessed. This gives a total of 87 canonized or blessed out of a total of 264, or a percentage of about 32 percent.

St. Peter (32-67)

St. Linus (67-76)

St. Anacletus (Cletus) (76-88)

St. Clement I (88-97)

St. Evaristus (97-105)

St. Alexander I (105-115)

St. Sixtus I (115-125) -- also called Xystus I

St. Telesphorus (125-136)

St. Hyginus (136-140)

St. Pius I (140-155)

St. Anicetus (155-166)

St. Soter (166-175)

St. Eleutherius (175-189)

St. Victor I (189-199)

St. Zephyrinus (199-217)

St. Callistus I (217-22)

St. Urban I (222-30)

St. Pontain (230-35)

St. Anterus (235-36)

St. Fabian (236-50)

St. Cornelius (251-53)

St. Lucius I (253-54)

St. Stephen I (254-257)

St. Sixtus II (257-258)

St. Dionysius (260-268)

St. Felix I (269-274)

St. Eutychian (275-283)

St. Caius (283-296) -- also called Gaius

St. Marcellinus (296-304)

St. Marcellus I (308-309)

St. Eusebius (309 or 310)

St. Miltiades (311-14)

St. Sylvester I (314-35)

St. Marcus (336)

St. Julius I (337-52)

Liberius (352-66)

St. Damasus I (366-83)

St. Siricius (384-99)

St. Anastasius I (399-401)

St. Innocent I (401-17)

St. Zosimus (417-18)

St. Boniface I (418-22)

St. Celestine I (422-32)

St. Sixtus III (432-40)

St. Leo I (the Great) (440-61)

St. Hilarius (461-68)

St. Simplicius (468-83)

St. Felix III (II) (483-92)

St. Gelasius I (492-96)

Anastasius II (496-98)

St. Symmachus (498-514)

St. Hormisdas (514-23)

St. John I (523-26)

St. Felix IV (III) (526-30)

Boniface II (530-32)

John II (533-35)

St. Agapetus I (535-36) -- also called Agapitus I

St. Silverius (536-37)

Vigilius (537-55)

Pelagius I (556-61)

John III (561-74)

Benedict I (575-79)

Pelagius II (579-90)

St. Gregory I (the Great) (590-604)

Sabinian (604-606)

Boniface III (607)

St. Boniface IV (608-15)

St. Deusdedit (Adeodatus I) (615-18)

Boniface V (619-25)

Honorius I (625-38)

Severinus (640)

John IV (640-42)

Theodore I (642-49)

St. Martin I (649-55)

St. Eugene I (655-57)

St. Vitalian (657-72)

Adeodatus (II) (672-76)

Donus (676-78)

St. Agatho (678-81)

St. Leo II (682-83)

St. Benedict II (684-85)

John V (685-86)

Conon (686-87)

St. Sergius I (687-701)

John VI (701-05)

John VII (705-07)

Sisinnius (708)

Constantine (708-15)

St. Gregory II (715-31)

St. Gregory III (731-41)

St. Zachary (741-52)

Stephen II (752)

Stephen III (752-57)

St. Paul I (757-67)

Stephen IV (767-72)

Adrian I (772-95)

St. Leo III (795-816)

Stephen V (816-17)

St. Paschal I (817-24)

Eugene II (824-27)

Valentine (827)

Gregory IV (827-44)

Sergius II (844-47)

St. Leo IV (847-55)

Benedict III (855-58)

St. Nicholas I (the Great) (858-67)

Adrian II (867-72)

John VIII (872-82)

Marinus I (882-84)

St. Adrian III (884-85)

Stephen VI (885-91)

Formosus (891-96)

Boniface VI (896)

Stephen VII (896-97)

Romanus (897)

Theodore II (897)

John IX (898-900)

Benedict IV (900-03)

Leo V (903)

Sergius III (904-11)

Anastasius III (911-13)

Lando (913-14)

John X (914-28)

Leo VI (928)

Stephen VIII (929-31)

John XI (931-35)

Leo VII (936-39)

Stephen IX (939-42)

Marinus II (942-46)

Agapetus II (946-55)

John XII (955-63)

Leo VIII (963-64)

Benedict V (964)

John XIII (965-72)

Benedict VI (973-74)

Benedict VII (974-83)

John XIV (983-84)

John XV (985-96)

Gregory V (996-99)

Sylvester II (999-1003)

John XVII (1003)

John XVIII (1003-09)

Sergius IV (1009-12)

Benedict VIII (1012-24)

John XIX (1024-32)

Benedict IX (1032-45)

Sylvester III (1045)

Benedict IX (1045)

Gregory VI (1045-46)

Clement II (1046-47)

Benedict IX (1047-48)

Damasus II (1048)

St. Leo IX (1049-54)

Victor II (1055-57)

Stephen X (1057-58)

Nicholas II (1058-61)

Alexander II (1061-73)

St. Gregory VII (1073-85)

Blessed Victor III (1086-87)

Blessed Urban II (1088-99)

Paschal II (1099-1118)

Gelasius II (1118-19)

Callistus II (1119-24)

Honorius II (1124-30)

Innocent II (1130-43)

Celestine II (1143-44)

Lucius II (1144-45)

Blessed Eugene III (1145-53)

Anastasius IV (1153-54)

Adrian IV (1154-59)

Alexander III (1159-81)

Lucius III (1181-85)

Urban III (1185-87)

Gregory VIII (1187)

Clement III (1187-91)

Celestine III (1191-98)

Innocent III (1198-1216)

Honorius III (1216-27)

Gregory IX (1227-41)

Celestine IV (1241)

Innocent IV (1243-54)

Alexander IV (1254-61)

Urban IV (1261-64)

Clement IV (1265-68)

Blessed Gregory X (1271-76)

Blessed Innocent V (1276)

Adrian V (1276)

John XXI (1276-77)

Nicholas III (1277-80)

Martin IV (1281-85)

Honorius IV (1285-87)

Nicholas IV (1288-92)

St. Celestine V (1294)

Boniface VIII (1294-1303)

Blessed Benedict XI (1303-04)

Clement V (1305-14)

John XXII (1316-34)

Benedict XII (1334-42)

Clement VI (1342-52)

Innocent VI (1352-62)

Blessed Urban V (1362-70)

Gregory XI (1370-78)

Urban VI (1378-89)

Boniface IX (1389-1404)

Innocent VII (1404-06)

Gregory XII (1406-15)

Martin V (1417-31)

Eugene IV (1431-47)

Nicholas V (1447-55)

Callistus III (1455-58)

Pius II (1458-64)

Paul II (1464-71)

Sixtus IV (1471-84)

Innocent VIII (1484-92)

Alexander VI (1492-1503)

Pius III (1503)

Julius II (1503-13)

Leo X (1513-21)

Adrian VI (1522-23)

Clement VII (1523-34)

Paul III (1534-49)

Julius III (1550-55)

Marcellus II (1555)

Paul IV (1555-59)

Pius IV (1559-65)

St. Pius V (1566-72)

Gregory XIII (1572-85)

Sixtus V (1585-90)

Urban VII (1590)

Gregory XIV (1590-91)

Innocent IX (1591)

Clement VIII (1592-1605)

Leo XI (1605)

Paul V (1605-21)

Gregory XV (1621-23)

Urban VIII (1623-44)

Innocent X (1644-55)

Alexander VII (1655-67)

Clement IX (1667-69)

Clement X (1670-76)

Blessed Innocent XI (1676-89)

Alexander VIII (1689-91)

Innocent XII (1691-1700)

Clement XI (1700-21)

Innocent XIII (1721-24)

Benedict XIII (1724-30)

Clement XII (1730-40)

Benedict XIV (1740-58)

Clement XIII (1758-69)

Clement XIV (1769-74)

Pius VI (1775-99)

Pius VII (1800-23)

Leo XII (1823-29)

Pius VIII (1829-30)

Gregory XVI (1831-46)

Blessed Pius IX (1846-78)

Leo XIII (1878-1903)

St. Pius X (1903-14)

Benedict XV (1914-22)

Pius XI (1922-39)

Pius XII (1939-58)

Blessed John XXIII (1958-63)

Paul VI (1963-78)

John Paul I (1978)

John Paul II (1978—)

Please take a look at the last two Popes, the year ... John Paul I has been only for three mounts pope, then he was assasinated. Why? Because the raod to the World Domination has to be prepaire; Bush senior, Gorbachiov and the pool were the three leaders, all three with high places on the secret organizations. The polish pope was in hes yough years a chemical specialist working togeter with Bernard of The Netherlans at Farbe the nazi factory who's created the Cyclon B gas for the deportation camps. After the WW II he has excaped in the church and because of hes past could make fast a carrier in the catholic church in Poland. The rest we all know, he make it as pope (by killing JP I).

To be continued ...