Spanish Inquisition - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Thu, 13 Dec 2018 08:07:26 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg Spanish Inquisition - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Spanish Jews want synagogue stolen in inquisition returned https://cathnews.co.nz/2018/12/13/spanish-jews-synagogue-inquisition/ Thu, 13 Dec 2018 07:08:59 +0000 https://cathnews.co.nz/?p=114641

Spanish Jews want a synagogue stolen by the Catholic Church in the 14th century returned to them. The Ibn Shushan synagogue in Toledo was closed 700 years ago during the rise of the Inquisition in 1492 with its policy of religious repression. This week Spanish Jews organised a religious-cultural event in conjunction with the Bishop Read more

Spanish Jews want synagogue stolen in inquisition returned... Read more]]> Spanish Jews want a synagogue stolen by the Catholic Church in the 14th century returned to them. The Ibn Shushan synagogue in Toledo was closed 700 years ago during the rise of the Inquisition in 1492 with its policy of religious repression.

This week Spanish Jews organised a religious-cultural event in conjunction with the Bishop of Toledo to raise awareness of the Spanish Jewish community's call for restitution for the former synagogue.

Hispanic-Jewish Foundation founder David Hatchwell says the community rallied together at the prayer service and concert to fete "a new moment of brotherhood in Judeo-Christian relations."

This week's event is one of a number of attempts the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain has made to raise awareness of the way the synagogue was stolen and the need to return it.

The Federation has repeatedly urged the government and church officials to offer a restitution plan for the building, which was erected in the 13th century.

The building was stolen when Spain adopted the Inquisition campaign. This resulted in the near extinction of Jewish life in Spain, which was once an international hub for Jewish scholarly and mercantile activities.

The museum building has gone through several reincarnations since it was built as the main synagogue in the 13th century. Soon after it was closed, the church of Santa Maria la Blanc was founded. Today the site hosts the Santa Maria la Blanca Museum, one of Spain's major tourist attractions.

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Spanish Jews want synagogue stolen in inquisition returned]]> 114641 The Spanish Inquisition in context https://cathnews.co.nz/2013/07/05/the-spanish-inquisition-in-context/ Thu, 04 Jul 2013 19:12:40 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=46488

It is difficult for us to understand the Spanish Inquisition because we are so used to the separation of church and state in modern times. During the time in which the Inquisition in Spain was most active (1480-1600s), however, heresy was considered a crime similar to political treason because the monarchies of Europe and the Read more

The Spanish Inquisition in context... Read more]]> It is difficult for us to understand the Spanish Inquisition because we are so used to the separation of church and state in modern times. During the time in which the Inquisition in Spain was most active (1480-1600s), however, heresy was considered a crime similar to political treason because the monarchies of Europe and the Catholic Church were so closely linked, and according to Roman Law torture could be used to extract confessions of guilt in cases of capital crimes. While forced conversions, torture, and the executions that took place during the Spanish Inquisition can never be excused, it is necessary to understand what was going on in Spain and in the Mediterranean at this time in history to see it in context and to distinguish the truth from the lies that have been told for 500 hundred years about this period of Spain's history.

Contrary to what many believe, the Spanish Inquisition did not target Protestants or people who had been Jewish or Muslim from birth. Rather, it was concerned with the issue of heresy and apostasy in Spain. According to the Catechism, "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith." (CCC 2089) In the 1300s there were many Jews in Spain who had converted to Catholicism, called "conversos," who were believed to have committed apostasy by returning to the practice of Judaism. James Michener points this out in his book Iberia:

"So far as I was able to ascertain, no Jew was ever executed by the Inquisition. If a man under investigation could say simply, ‘Yes, I'm a Jew and have never been otherwise,' his gold and silver were confiscated and he was banished from Spain, but he was in no way subject to the Inquisition and certainly he was never burned. The Jews who did suffer, and in the thousands, were those who had at one time been baptized as Catholics, had been legal Catholics and had committed apostasy by reverting to Jewish practices. These were rooted out with great severity, but when they were burned, it was as Catholics, not as Jews."(1) Continue reading

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