"AUTO-DA-FE (more correctly auto-de-fe; "act of faith") the name of the ceremony during the course of which the sentences of the Spanish Inquisition were read.
"The ceremony comprised a procession in which members of the Holy Office, with familiars and agents, and the accused persons who had confessed their guilt and declared their penitence took part; a solemn mass; an oath of obedience to the inquisition, taken by the king and all lay functionaries; a sermon by the grand inquisitor; and the reading of the sentences, either of condemnation or acquittal, delivered by the Holy Office.
"The handing over of impenitent persons, and those who had relapsed, to the secular power, and their punishment, did not usually take place on the occasion of an auto-da-fe, properly so called." That is the entire unedited entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1973 edition, Vol. 2, page 856. One of the good old exhaustive Brittanicas not dumbed down to meet he lack of current scholarly standards in gummint skewels. You may imagine that your Wednesday night Bible Study folk are more in the know, but I doubt that they are.
Do you imagine that society as it exists at the dawn of the 21st century is LESS in need of a series of serious, ummmmm, inquiries into the beliefs and practices of perfidy among us than were the societies of the grand Age of Faith? 45 million slaughtered innocents via SCOTUS in our country alone; legalized lavender canoodling, courtesy of SCOTUS, homosexual child molesters among the Catholic clergy, public officials who want to call themselves "Catholic" while cheerleading and protecting infanticide and lavender "marriage" or civil unions or whatever, and you think it wise to reject the reinstitution of the Inquisition wherever possible????
The Inquisition still exists as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and has, in recent decades, been run by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Under him, it has successfully attacked and suppressed "Liberation Theology" which is armed Marxism-Leninism posing as Catholicism. Miscreants of the Marxist-Leninist variety are free to believe what they please. Governments or free men and women may shoot the miscreants when they seriously act out such beliefs to the detriment of the lives or property of decent citizens. If the miscreants simultaneously claim to be Catholic, the Holy Office or Inquisition can deal with that and has.
The Roman Catholic Church has formally recognized and pledged to defend the civil rights of those "in error" as to theology, including atheists and agnostics. This is one pledge which helped bring down the Iron Curtain and the soviet empire. You have referenced this as "freedom of religion."
The signature line is from the lyrics of a song in the songbook of the Party of the Right of the Yale Political Union: Torquemada's Band. The next line is "Another soul to heaven from Torquemada's Band." The tune is that of MacNamara's Band. The POR is comprised of Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Heinz's 57 varieties of Protestants, agnostics, atheists and even Nietszcheans. For the most part, the members (including a number of Protestant Federal Appellate judges since membership is for life at least) share a sense of humor sadly lacking in you.
The Catholic Church recognizes and supports free will. Free speech is a largely American notion and one which is admirable and practical in civil affairs but NOT within the Church as to its own affairs which, of course, are not at all your business.
You plead your case so well, good sir.
Where may I sign up?