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Some pope, not this one, madel the Inquisition a policy of the Church-- justified it, OK'd it, permitted it, let it continue. An agent of this pope is now minimizing the horrors that took place. Once issued, the apology should have been the end of the Church's discussion of the issue. "We're sorry, but it actually wasn't that bad" doesn't look very good.

Interesting, but irrelevant to the doctrine of Infallibility. The pope is only infallible when he speaks Ex Cathedra on matters of faith. What he, or his predecessors, said as head of the church, when not speaking Ex Cathedra, are no more or less infallible than what any other leader, or for that matter, any other human being says. The pope is just as vulnerable to sin and temptation as any other person. The Pope could open up a strip club in the basement of the Vatican, and that would have zero relevance on the question of his infallibility on matters of faith when he speaks Ex Cathedra.

One would hope that, having the substantial resources of the Church and her history, the Pope's pronouncements would be wiser and his decisions better than anyone else in the world, but there's no guarantee, and certainly there are plenty of examples of popes in the past who made mistakes.

I'm certainly no church historian, but I'm not aware of any Ex Cathedra pronouncements regarding the Inquisition by the current Pope or any of his predecessors.

OK-- I accept as true what you say about the ex-cathedra issue.

Why is it still official policy (canon law) that the RCC can harass and kill heretics?

see http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/kill.htm