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Entry: Honor-Killings, Islam, and Christendom Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/honor_killings_islam_and_christendom#1810 Post contents: There's no point in trying to be more "Catholic" than the pope. The Holy See issued a solemn apology for the cruel persecution of those (rightly) deemed as heretics in past centuries, and has fully assimilated the one legitimate development of doctrine which occurred at Vatican II: the teaching on religious liberty, which asserted that the human freedom of conscience trumps the right of the State to impose conformity of practice or belief. This rectifies a mistake which went back to Augustine--who in his early career favored freedom of belief, but who later quoted (out of context) the biblical verse "compel them to come in" to justify persecuting the (admittedly repulsive) Donatists. The Imperial persecution which ensued did not eradicate the heresy, but deepened the splits among Christians in North Africa, such that many of them regarded the invading Islamic hordes as liberators. (The poor Ukrainians made the same mistake in 1941....) Friends of the Church do her no favors by trying to defend the crimes committed in her name, against her spirit. Remember that St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers to win back souls from the (hideous) Albigensians by PERSUASION. It was his successors who were pressured by secular power and some not-very-saintly popes to employ force against these confused, deeply mistaken people. Sure, it might make sense in certain contexts to restrain the public preaching of certain very destructive doctrines --such as Nazism, poisonous cults, and I daresay Marxism. And it's necessary sometimes to fight defensive wars, such as (several, not all of) the Crusades. But by renouncing the Inquisition we move closer to the spirit of the saints and the apostles. And that can hardly be a bad thing. Sent at: 2008 11 21