A Vatican exhibition tries to shed new light on one of the darker chapters in the church's history ( link).

By Barbie Nadeau | Newsweek

The following is my response:

We need to address the Inquisition; the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was corrupt. It had strayed from the original teachings of Jesus. The persecution of the Jews resulted in the germination of the seeds of hate, which justified the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust centuries later. The division of Rome and Constantinople led to the Crusaders sacking Constantinople and eventually the fall of Constantinople in the fifteenth century, to the Ottoman Empire. This led to the spread of Islam in Eastern Europe. The Catholic Church stymied Science and Democracy for centuries. It resulted in the death of thousands and thousands of souls in the name of Religion.

But today Europe is a "Democracy of Nations" and it and the United States are the leaders of Religious Freedom, Technology and Human Rights. However, we now face an old foe, which is again on the move. We have to learn from the mistakes and transgressions of Rome. Islam is the Dogma of oppression and coercion. It is again knocking on the door of Europe. It wants to implement Sharia Law and all of its excess baggage. Europe doesn't need to go through a thousand years of domination by Islam. We need to learn from the mistakes of the Vatican and the Inquisition.