In re:  Anticipated Millennium Address from Pope John Paul II

(From "Vatican assumes responsibility for Inquisition" BY ALESSANDRA GALLONI. Reuters.)

October 30, 1998: VATICAN CITY—The Vatican said Thursday that it had to take responsibility for one of the darkest eras in Roman Catholic Church history— the Inquisition, in which thousands of accused heretics were imprisoned, tortured or burned at the stake during the Middle Ages.

Pope John Paul II has said in several speeches that the Church needs to assume responsibility for the Inquisition, which was responsible for the forced conversion of Jews as well as the torture and killing of heretics.

“The church is not afraid to submit its past to the judgment of history,” said Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who heads the Vatican’s Commission for the Grand Jubilee, which oversees events planned for the Millennium. “The church cannot cross the threshold of the new millennium without pressing its children to purify themselves in repentance for their errors, infidelity, incoherence and slowness.” Etchegaray said.

Enclosed herein is a letter regarding the Pope’s anticipated Millennium Address.  The letter requests that his Holiness include Witches and Pagans when he asks forgiveness for the acts of the Inquisition.  This document was drafted by an adjunct Committee of Pagan Leaders and sympathetic Christians, and has been signed by various individuals and groups who support this request.

The Pagan Community recognizes the historical significance of such a Millennium Address and has rallied in support of the Pope’s anticipated act, which will be one of courage, penitence, and peace as he stretches forth the hand of the Vatican in an effort to redress an ancient wrong. It is the strongly held conviction of those signing this document and of the groups which they represent that this Millennium Address must include an apology to the Pagans, Witches and alleged Witches who were also victimized by the Inquisition in order for this act of the modern Church to have complete meaning.

Therefore, we submit the enclosed document for your attention. If you wish to be included as a signatory, please contact us immediately at the following Internet e-dress: elemental@knology.net.  The deadline for signatures is October 31, 1999.  Please categorize your signature in one of the following formats:

PAGAN ORGANIZATIONS (Name, Address)
PAGAN LEADERS (Name, Title, Affiliation, Country)
PAGAN COMMUNITY MEMBERS (Name, Affiliation, Country)
NON-PAGAN ORGANIZATIONS (Name, Denomination, Address)
NON-PAGAN CLERGY (Name, Title, Denomination, Location)
OTHER SYMPATHETIC INDIVIDUALS (Name, Religion, Country)

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

The Committee for the Pope’s Millennium Apology

For more  on the background and process of the Committee, please go to Lady Liberty League News at http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty