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Hi Gary,

> Millions of people lost their lives and endured immense suffering because of the intransigence of a few church leaders and their obstinate refusal to listen to the moderates.

Millions? The numbers are so exaggerated as to be laughable if the subject matter was not so tragic. I offer the following from Askville by Amazon. It mirrors what my research over the years has produced. I echo the sentiments of the writer and JPII:

There were two major Inquisitions, the Medieval Inquisition and Spanish Inquisition. Although there are no exact numbers, scholars believe they have estimated Inquisition deaths reasonably accurately. There were not as many deaths as the popular press claims. Numbers have often been inflated to as high as 9 million by the popular press, with absolutely no scholarly research. This figure is completely erroneous. A broad range of scholars, many of whom were not Catholic, have carefully studied the Inquisitions. They looked at all the existing records and were able to extrapolate. In the Medieval Inquisition, Bernard Gui was one of the most notorious of the medieval inquisitors. (so much so that the sick modern pornography industry has turned him into a hero). He tried 930 people out of which 42 were executed (4.5%). Another famous Inquisitor was Jacques Fournier who tried 114 cases of which 5 were executed (4.3%). Using numbers that are known, scholars have been able to surmise that approximately 2,000 people died in the Medieval Inquisition. (1231-1400 AD)

According to public news reports the book's editor, Prof. Agostino Borromeo, stated that about 125,000 persons were investigated by the Spanish Inquisition, of which 1.8% were executed (2,250 people). Most of these deaths occurred in the first decade and a half of the Inquisition's 350 year history. In Portugal of the 13,000 tried in the 16th and early 17th century 5.7% were said to have been condemned to death. News articles did not report if Portugal's higher percentage included those sentenced to death in effigy (i.e. an image burnt instead of the actual person). For example, historian Gustav Henningsen reported that statistical tabulations of 50,000 recorded cases tried by nineteen Spanish tribunals between 1540-1700 found 775 people (1.7%) were actually executed while another 700 (1.4%) were sentenced to death in effigy ("El 'banco de datos' del Santo Oficio: Las relaciones de causas de la Inquisición española, 1550-1700", BRAH, 174, 1977). Jewish historian Steven Katz remarked on the Medieval Inquisition that "in its entirety, the thirteenth and fourteenth century Inquisition put very few people to death and sent few people to prison; 90 percent of its sentences were canonical penances" (The Holocaust in Historical Context, 1994).

During the high point of the Spanish Inquisition from 1478-1530 AD, scholars found that approximately 1,500-2,000 people were found guilty. From that point forward, there are exact records available of all "guilty" sentences which amounted to 775 executions. In the full 200 years of the Spanish Inquisition, less than 1% of the population had any contact with it, people outside of the major cities didn't even know about it. The Inquisition was not applied to Jews or Moslems, unless they were baptised as Christians.

If we add the figures, we find that the entire Inquisition of 500 years, caused about 6,000 deaths. These atrocities are completely inexcusable. These numbers are however, a far cry from the those used in the popular press by people who are always looking to destroy the Church. This is about equal to the number of war related deaths that have occurred in Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2 years since the US responded to 9/11.

Another thing to note is that the Spanish Inquisition, in a wrong way, may have saved some lives. In many European countries in the 16th century, religious wars were the cause of tens of thousands of deaths. But in Spain, there was political and religious unity as a result of the Inquisition, and there was no such war.

Nevertheless, the Inquisition tortures and death were inexcusable. I echo the voice of John Paul II "Forgive us Lord, Never Again"

> By creating mistrust in a known method of reducing transmission rates the church is placing millions of lives at risk.

The only people affected are Catholics and practicing Catholics at that. Practicing Catholics are less likely to be out looking for a casual sex partner and a non- practicing Catholic is more than likely to ignore the pope in any case. Sorry, you will have to find someone else to blame.

Peace,

Hi Tony,

> We have a sexual inclination, but that inclination, like all our other inclinations, is not destined alone to the survival of the species as it is among other creations, but for the delight of itself.

I agree completely, but as in most cases of our delights there are limits and consequences. Most of society still frowns on those in a committed relationship who keep lovers none more than the significant other. The law forbids taking such delight with children, with someone who has not consented and taking said delight in a public place. You missed one other important point in placing said delight in our "human form". The delight in casual sex is purely animal in nature. Your concern with delight is solely your own, if your partner happens to be satisfied that is a bonus, but not essential.

On the consequences side I always use the business model. When embarking on a new venture we always do a worse-case scenario. What is the worse that could happen if we do X and are we prepared to live with the consequences should that scenario be realized? In a high infection area of HIV/AIDS what is the worse case scenario? One could become HIV positive. If one takes all the precautions including condom use how is the worse case reduced? Even with condom use there is a 1 in 10 chance that one could become infected. Can one live with this worse-case scenario? What the pope and Muslim clerics are pointing out is the worse-case scenario. In heavy Muslim areas the infection rate is very low, in Catholic areas they are below average for the most part. It is hard to argue with stats. Besides, Non-Catholic and non-Muslim populations are going to use condoms regardless of what the pope or Muslim cleric say.

Peace,