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http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0406156.htm 

 Rai 

VATICAN-INQUISITION Nov-9-2004 (460 words) xxxi 

Vatican joins Italian project to inventory Inquisition archives 

By Cindy Wooden 

Catholic News Service 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To assist international research on "the control of 
religious ideas in medieval and modern Europe," the Congregation for the 
Doctrine of the Faith is participating in an inventory of archival material 
on the Inquisition. 

Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the doctrinal congregation, signed a 
collaboration agreement Nov. 9 with representatives of the Italian Ministry 
of Cultural Goods and the University of Trieste's Center for Research on the 
Inquisition. 

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the project will attempt to 
catalog documents held in church, state and private archives, as well as 
Italian and foreign libraries. 

The documents will include those related to the Roman Inquisition, which 
began in the 16th century, the earlier Spanish Inquisition and similar 
trials conducted by secular authorities for "heresy, witchcraft and other 
crimes against the faith," the Vatican spokesman said. 

The inventory is meant not only to safeguard the documentation, "but also 
will facilitate knowledge in many fields of research, from the history of 
religious and scientific doctrines, to that of popular cultures, 
'spontaneous holiness' and censorship, as well as the systems of social 
control between the medieval age and modern times," Navarro-Valls said. 

Creating a unified catalog of the material in church, state and private 
hands will make it easier for scholars to find the information they need for 
their research, he said. 

The Nov. 9 agreement was the second bringing the doctrinal congregation and 
the Italian government together on Inquisition research. 

In December 2002 the Italian ministry agreed to finance the creation of an 
electronic inventory of the congregation's historical archive, which 
contains documents related to the Inquisition, the Reformation, the 
Enlightenment and other chapters of history. 

The Vatican sponsored an in-depth study on the Inquisition in 1998, and in 
June it published the contributions of more than 30 specialists who spoke at 
the 1998 symposium. 

The book included a letter from Pope John Paul II reaffirming the church's 
"spirit of repentance" as it reflects on how Christians turned to "methods 
of intolerance and even violence in the service of the truth." 

Antonio Borromeo, who edited the volume, told reporters that the scientific 
rigor shown during the symposium would modify some popularly held beliefs 
about the Inquisition. In particular, he said, the "recourse to torture and 
to the death penalty were not so frequent as was long believed." 

As an example, he said that out of approximately 125,000 cases tried by the 
Spanish Inquisition 1 percent resulted in the death penalty. 

Citing statistics on the number of women burned at the stake during the 
European "witch hunts" over several centuries, Borromeo cited one study that 
showed that fewer than 100 were executed by the Inquisition, compared to 
approximately 50,000 executed on the order of civil tribunals. 

END 

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise 
distributed. 

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