The Church actually pioneered modern jurisprudential practices such as giving representation to the accused. It is also known that many prisoners would blaspheme intentionally in order to get under the Inquisitorial jurisdiction and away from secular courts, which were harsher.
A lot of Protestant sources describe all incidents of torture without distinction and associate them all with the Inquisition. In fact, what you describe were univerally accepted practices of interrogation, and of course every time a person was suffering, a priest would be available to assist the sufferer. That does not make the court one of the Holy Inquisition.
If, or when, an Inquisition convenes in the United States, it will employ methods of our (supposedly enlightened) time. Then, if guilt is found, the faaithless Catholic will be publicly excommunicated, and will no longer able to call himself Catholic yet teach against the Church. If any civil law were broken, as in case of child molestation, the District Attorney can handle it promptly and not 30 years after the fact based on accusations that cannot be proven. This would be a vast improvement over the state of American Catholicism today, and I advocate it with passion.
boatbums, Did I tell you in post 543?
Was I right?
I've got to hand it to you, there are few posters that can get me to sit for a minute and just gape in awe at their comment.
Pray tell, what on earth is stopping your church from publicly excommunicating the faithless Catholic now? Why do you need any federal authority to help you take care of your own religious business? If any person, clerical or not, is guilty of crimes against the law of the land, the "state" should already have all the power it needs to prosecute the suspect. It would help, of course, if people stopped hiding behind the skirts of their hierarchy, or being allowed to.
No "American Inquisition" is necessary, only the courage of your own convictions that those who claim your mantle in the public arena but go against your teachings be publicly ostracized and refused the fellowship of the church. That's how it is supposed to happen. It worked in the first century and is still the only option the Lord has given to us.