PURELY COMMENTARY

An End To Condoning Inquisition Horrors

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor Emeritus

F

or some 500 years the
vilest of bigotries were
condoned in corrupted
religious ranks inhumanly
inspired by hatreds which
were primarily anti-Jewish.
They were the demented
hatreds which stemmed
from, and were embedded in,
the Spanish Inquisition. The
beastly minds of Queen
Isabella and her husband
Ferdinand were the most
responsible for the introduc-
tion of these vile events in
human history. A historic
decision makes this year im-
portant in religious and
human devotions. We have
reason to consider it an end
to the veneration of the
Spanish monarchs and the
bigotries that were the pro-
ducts of sick minds.
The jubilation is the result
of a denial by the leading
Catholic authorities to
beatify Queen Isabella. The
decision is contained in a
resolution adopted unani-
mously by the 40 bishops ork
the Pontifical Council for
Christian Unity specifically
stating that the proposed
beatification of Isabella con-
tradicts current church posi-
tions on the freedom of
conscience.
Rabbi Marc Tenenbaum,
who is one of American
Jewry's most prominent re-
ligious leaders, a member of
the Synagogue Council of
America's inter-religious af-
fairs commission and a
former leader in ecumenism
for the American Jewish
Committee, says, "This is a
remarkable victory and
evidence that our relation-
ship with the Catholic chur-
ch is really working!'
There were several cen-
turies of condemnations of
the resultant bigotries, and
there was a dispute over
them and Isabella of Spain
in our community involving
the Catholic seminary on
Chicago Blvd. in which I had
a role together with Dr.
David de Sola Pool, the
Sephardic leader.
A statement made by Dr.
Tenenbaum in his syn-
dicated weekly column is
important in studying the
developing situation involv-
ing Isabella and the Inquisi-
tion. Dr. Tenenbaum keeps
us aware of the cruelties and
the monarchs who were
among those chiefly respon-
sible for them in this analy-
sis of the facts.

46 FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1991

The unanimous decision
on the part of some 40
Roman Catholic bishops to
oppose efforts at making a
saint of Queen Isabella of
Spain is an important sign
of Vatican respect for
Jewish — and Moslem —
feelings.
It is also a perceptive ef-
fort by these 20th-century
churchmen to prevent the
ancient Catholic tradition
of devotion to saints from
being made into a
mockery.
Thus, in my judgment,
while these enlightened
bishops have taken this
position against the
beatification of Queen
Isabella in part to avoid of-
fending Jews and
Moslems, of greater con-
cern to them is the preser-
vation of the culture of the
veneration of saints, now a
vital part of Catholic
spiritual tradition .. .
Many Jews I have spoken
with find it difficult to
believe that educated
Catholics, let alone
bishops, were not aware of
the bestial cruelty and
destruction engaged in by
Queen Isabella during the
Spanish Inquisition in the
15th century.
In fact, an examination of
Catholic history texts
reveals that Queen Isabella
and King Ferdinand have

There is a shock in
the re-emergence
of the Isabella
outrage in the
realization that
there are Catholic
clerics today who
still venerate her.

been treated mainly as
gifted statespeople, and as
rulers who, to use a
modern metaphor, made
Spain's "railroads run on
time." The horrendous
destruction wreaked by
these two monarchs on the
lives of Jews, Marranos
and Moors is given scant, if
any, attention.
As Jewish represen-
tatives made available the
facts of that abominable
history — Isabella's torture,
the horrors of the Spanish
Inquisition, and the pre-
tech, Nazi-like behavior of
Tomas de Torquemada, the
inspector general of the In-
quisition — there was a
unanimous response on
the part of Catholic
bishops, especially in the

United States and in most
of Western Europe, that
this sainthood project
could not be allowed to
proceed.
There is a shock in the re-
emergence of the Isabella
outrage in the realization
that there are Catholic
clerics today who still ven-
erate her. A valuable expose
of it appeared in the New
York Times op-ed page arti-
cle, April 6, by Kenneth L.
Woodward, author of Mak-
ing Saints. Mr. Woodward
wrote:
The Vatican's Congrega-
tion for the Causes of
Saints has more than 1,200
candidates awaiting of-
ficial action.
Why, after five centuries,
did Isabella suddenly
merit priority. considera-
tion? The answer, in part, is
that she is being promoted
by an international com-
mittee of clergy and
laymen representing a
highly conservative party
with the church. They in-
clude Spanish Bishop
Alvardo Portillo, the in-
fluential head of Opus Dei,
the secretive Catholic
movement established in
the Franco era, and two of
the most conservative car-
dinals in the American
hierarchy, Archbishop Ber-
nard Law of Boston and a
retired Archbishop, John
Carberry, of St. Louis.

What this suggests is that
the Queen's cause is fueled
less by popular piety than
by an ideological faction
for whom she represents
the fusion of Roman
Catholic faith with the
political order .. .
Her timely virtues, the
committee writes, are
"leadership, prudence,
courage, compassion, puri-
ty and Christian concern
for the temporal and
spiritual welfare of all peo-
ple No mention is made of
the expulsion of the Jews
or of the Inquisition .. .
The Vatican's saint-
makers pride themselves
on their ability to get at the
historical truth of a can-
didate's life, regardless of
who is behind the cause. To
halt Isabella's case just as
theologians were prepar-
ing to discuss her heroic
virtue will not quiet the
church's critics. Rome
needs to explain how so
questionable a candidate
has come so close to
becoming a saint. What is
at stake is not just
Isabella's worthiness to be
venerated as a saint but
the integrity of the
canonization process itself.

We must recognize the deep
regret over the continuation
of some support of the cruel
and barbaric Isabella. As
late as 1975, there was such

an occurrence in our com-
munity. I found it necessary
to label my commentary of
Nov. 14, 1975, as "The
Church, Inquisition and
Ritual Murder Libel."
In the 1975 article, I pro-
vided a summary of the
debate in Detroit and I ac-
companied it with an edito-
rial I wrote in the Jewish
Chronicle of Jan. 2, 1931.
Here is some of that data:
Mike Whorf, the brilliant
director of the Detroit radio
station WJR Kaleidoscope
programs, chose Columbus
Day as occasion to magnify
the role of Queen Isabella.
Only in the last words of his
broadcast did he mention
what he said was a negative
aspect of her career, her share
of guilt with her husband,
King Ferdinand, in the in-
stitution and promulgation of
the brutal Inquisi-
tion . . .
The late Dr. David de Sola
Pool, the eminent rabbi of the
Spanish and Portuguese
Synagogue of New York, one
of the oldest in this country,
called upon the Catholic
Church to reject the instiga-
tion of the horrors which were
condoned in the William
Walsh biography — which ex-
onerated Isabella for any
responsibility.
The late Dr. Cecil Roth,
chief among the authorities
on the era of the Inquisition

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