"You'd rather be in Spain?" Nope. Shipped us off to Texas thinking we'd die off. Forgot we were a desert people. Indians were nothing compared to Arabs.
"Did they, as some did, claim to be Catholic while remaining at heart Jewish?"
Well, it was that: (1) die or (2) have all property taken away and then die. THAT forced conversion is the not-so-little deceit in the "only affected Catholics" line.
"Were they expatriated by the Church, which didn't have the authority to do so or by the secular government which did?"
I would answer with a question. Did the Jews crucify Christ, even though they didn't have the authority to do so, or did the secular government do so? Same issue here, I suppose.
Don't get me wrong. History is history. ALL human organizations are flawed because they are made up of men --- especially churches because the devil has a vested interest in messing them up.
Which is why I LIKE this pope. A back-to-the-basics guy, it sounds.
Yes he does, fortunately, he will not prevail, despite our foolish willingness to cooperate with him at times.