April 19th
forwarded by a friend.
THE GRAND INQUISITOR RATZINGER BECOMES POPE BENEDICT XVI
All doubts about the direction which the Catholic Church might take
following John Paul II's death have been dispelled by the election Cardinal
Josef Ratzinger of Munich as Pope Benedict XVI. He is even more conservative
and even reactionary than his predecessor. This is how he was described by
two leading Vatican observers nearly 15 years ago:
"Ratzinger is perhaps the closest to the Pope [John Paul II] of all the
Curia [Vatican administration] Cardinals. ...A deeply pessimistic man, he
feels that the Church is collapsing, and only the suppression of all dissent
can ensure its survival as a united faith. He regards those who do not share
his pessimism as 'blind and deluded'."
This man of doom and gloom is now the guiding spirit of this 'spiritual
institution' that is facing virtual meltdown in Europe!
And who is this prophet of doom who believes that suppression of dissent
is the only salvation. He was, until his election as Pope Benedict XVI, the
head of an office known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
This serene sounding office located in a building with an even more serene
name Casa Santa (Saintly House) hides a history that resonates with fear.
Prior to 1965, the Congregation for the Doctine of the Faith was known
as the Holy Office, and before that, until 1542, as the Holy Inquisition- a
name that still sends shivers down the spine of Europeans. The chief
executive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is called its
Secretary, though in earlier times, he was known as the Grand Inquisitor.
The new pope, Benedict XVI, aka Josef Ratzinger, was until recently the
Grand Inquisitor.
What did (and does in its modern form) the Grand Inquisitor do? He
presided over trials by Inquisition. Among the notable achievements of the
Holy Inquisition - everything the Church does is Holy - were the persecution
of Galileo for his scientific discoveries and the less known (at least in
India), burning at the stake of his contemporary Giordano Bruno for the same
reason.
Trials by Inquisition were so designed that defense was impossible. Its
'legal' procedure was described by its trial manual known as Libro Negro
(The Black Book), better known as "The Book of Death" as follows:
"Either the person confesses and he is proved guilty by his own
confession, or he does not confess and is equally guilty on the evidence of
witnesses. If a person confesses to the whole of what he is accused of, he
is unquestionably guilty of the whole; but if he confesses to only a part,
he ought still to be regarded as guilty of the whole, since what he has
confessed proves him to be capable of guilt as to the other points of the
accusation... Bodily torture has ever been found the most salutary and
efficient means of leading to spiritual repentence. Therefore, the choice of
the most benefiting mode of torture is left to the Judge of the
Inquisition."
Stalin had nothing over the Grand Inquisitor. It is the charge that
counts-- evidence is immaterial. The grandmaster of the judges of the
Inquisition is now the pope who will bring spiritual salvation to the world,
especially the people of Europe. India of course did not escape the Holy
Inquisition. The Goa Inquisition instigated by 'Saint' Xavier is well known
though it is no longer secularly correct to mention it. But those who may
not know about the Goa Inquisition can still get an idea of the trial by
Inquisition by looking at the trial of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi.
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