Hollow Apologies

Artist rendition of a Jew being tortured by his inquisitors

Many historians agree that the Spanish Inquisition was one of the darkest periods in human history.

What was the Spanish Inquisition all about? It was about the forcible conversion of the Jews who were living in Spain during the late 15th century to Roman Catholicism.

The Inquisition, that was launched in conjunction with King Ferdinand, Queen Isabella and the Roman Catholic Church, gave the Jews the ultimatum to either renounce their faith and join the Catholic Church or leave Spain.

But it didn't stop there. Even those Jews who pledged to convert were harshly persecuted if they were even suspected of offering an insincere confession.

Thousands of Jews were forced to flee Spain, leaving their homes and possessions behind. Many left that nation with only the clothes on their backs. Those who didn't escape often met with a horrible end at the hands of church and government officials.

Now however, over 500 years after that horrible episode, Spain wants to make things right again for the Jews. From the Chicago Tribune: "More than half a millennium later, Spain says it is intent on rectifying its historic mistake. Under a government proposal still to be voted on by lawmakers, descendants of Spanish Jews would be offered citizenship and welcomed back to the land that drove out their ancestors. Spanish embassies around the globe have fielded inquiries from Jews who view the proposal as a poignant gesture of contrition and reconciliation and others who see it as an opportunity to receive a European Union passport and the right to settle in any of the EU's 28 nations."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/la-fg-spain-jews-

While Spain's recognition of her sin committed against the Jews is commendable, the other villain in that atrocity has never admitted fault. Nor will she ever admit fault because the Roman Catholic Church considers herself to be infallible and incapable of sin.

Many years ago, when he was asked about his church's historically harsh treatment of the Jews, Pope John Paul II offered what amounted to a quasi-apology that claimed "the church" had committed sins against the Jews, but refused to admit that his church had committed most of those sins.

When we examine the roots of anti-Semitism, we find that many of those roots trace back to the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is the mother of anti-Semitism and is responsible for such historical atrocities as the Crusades, the Inquisitions and even Hitler's Holocaust.

Hitler's Holocaust? Yes, even that terrible stain on human history because the Fuhrer qualified his contempt for the Jews by what he learned as a youth in the Catholic Church. Here's an example of that contempt in Mein Kampf: "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." 
http://www.nobeliefs.com/hitler.htm

And here's a speech that Hitler gave shortly after he was elected as the Chancellor of Germany in 1933: :"I have been attacked because of my handling of the Jewish question. The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc., because it recognized the Jews for what they were. In the epoch of liberalism the danger was no longer recognized. I am moving back toward the time in which a fifteen-hundred-year-long tradition was implemented. I do not set race over religion, but I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the Church, and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions."
http://www.prophecyreviewonline.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=4770

To this day, the Roman Catholic Church still believes that the Jews are cursed of God because they corporately rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah 2,000 years ago. And she will always maintain that position toward the Jews.

What has changed is Rome's approach to her historical anti-Semitism. Today, for sociopolitical reasons, it's far more subtle. But it still exists.

And it will continue to exist until Christ returns and puts a permanent end to this counterfeit church.