I wonder if he himself is fully aware of how profoundly the institution he heads denied those rights, refused that respect and love. As this book amply demonstrates, the pathology of sadism and cruelty established in the past will be repeated and amplified in future centuries unless it is challenged and exposed in the present. If the new millennium is to see any radical change in human behaviour, a change will need to come from the leaders of institutions which have, in the past, been responsible for persecuting others in the mistaken belief that in the name of God any form of coercion is acceptable. If the Papacy could publicly repudiate the behaviour of the Inquisition, this pattern of repression and control could be recognised as something that must never be allowed to repeat itself in the name of any group or institution, secular or religious. It would tell people all over the world that this was wrong and not only wrong but totally antithetical to the teaching of Christ and the will of God.
True repentance is more than expressing regret.
It is to acknowledge the wrong that was done in error, perhaps to hold a mass for the souls of those men and women who, over a span of 500 years, lost their lives in the most atrocious way imaginable, victims of a group of individuals whose drive for omnipotence has only been rivalled by the messianic pretensions of the modern totalitarian state. Today our great achievements in science, medicine, standards of living, respect for human rights, are threatened by our reluctance to explore the roots of the drive for omnipotence and control that lies in the shadow aspect of our own human nature. An intrinsic aspect of that drive is the demonising of others and the delusion that an individual or association of individuals, whether religious or political, has the right to coerce, persecute or murder others in order to establish or maintain its belief system. The more identified with an ideology people are, the greater the danger of inflation, megalomania and violence against others. This book deserves a wide audience.