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By Michael Freund January 22, 2017 , 8:00 am
Towering over the Piazza Marina near the sea in Palermo, Sicily, stands an ornate medieval structure that conceals within its walls chilling evidence of one of the darkest chapters in European history.

With its crenellated walls and imposing fortress-like architecture, the Palazzo Chiaramonte, or Steri Palace as it is better known, is one of the coastal city’s most prominent sites, a place drenched in a torment that many would prefer to forget.

From 1601 to 1782, the site served as the headquarters of the “Holy Inquisition,” an institution that used decidedly unholy means to hunt down suspected heretics, sectarians and of course secret Judaizers, or crypto-Jews.

But it was far more than just an administrative facility.

The building housed holding cells where prisoners were tortured by the Inquisitorial zealots, who apparently failed to see the irony in tearing people’s flesh in the name of faith, or shattering their spirit for the sake of the soul.

In several rooms at the Steri, stark graffiti etched by prisoners awaiting their fate has been preserved, embodying the last hopes and dreams of countless men and women whose only crime was a failure to toe the papal line.

As a Jew and a human being, I was overcome by the aura of grief that each cell contained. In one room, Hebrew letters are visible in two places on the wall, tangible evidence that forcibly-converted Sicilian Jews suspected of “relapsing” into Judaic practice had spent their final hours on earth here.

In another, an obviously talented and heartbroken secret Jew had painstakingly drawn a detailed sketch of Jerusalem, a city he must have dreamt of seeing yet would never merit to.

As I stood gazing at these disheartening scenes, I realized that the engravings on the walls of the Steri Palace’s jail cells are the silent screams of the Inquisition’s victims, calling out to us centuries later, pleading that they not be forgotten.

Among those who perished within the Steri were descendants of Sicily’s once-vibrant Jewish community, which possibly dated back to the Roman era.

By the end of the 14th century, Sicily’s Jews had been confined to ghettos and were subjected to massacres and forced conversions to Catholicism.

Increasing persecution in subsequent years reached its climax in 1492, when Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, who controlled Sicily, issued the Edict of Expulsion, which ordered all the Jews remaining in their kingdom to leave.

There were over 50 Jewish communities spread out across Sicily, numbering at least 37,000 people and possibly many more. Historians estimate that 10% of Palermo’s population at the time was Jewish.

When the date of the expulsion arrived on January 12, 1493, many left, but large numbers of forcibly converted Jews, known as Anusim (whom historians refer to by the derogatory term “Marranos”) were prohibited from departing, and they came under the suspicious scrutiny of the Inquisition, which wasted little time in hunting them down.

Indeed, the first auto-DA-few in Sicily took place in Palermo in June 1511, when the Inquisitors publicly executed nine Sicilian Anusim and burned them at the stake in front of a large crowd.
With that, the story of Sicilian Jewry should presumably have come to a close, smothered by hatred and oppression.

But against all the odds, and despite the dangers they faced, many of the Anusim continued to pass down their Jewish heritage from generation to generation, preserving various Jewish customs and clinging to the identity of their ancestors.

That courage was rewarded last week at a remarkable ceremony I attended in Palermo on the anniversary of the 1493 expulsion. In a grand gesture of reconciliation, the local Archdiocese officially returned the site where Palermo’s Great Synagogue had once stood to the Jewish people.

Working together with the Sicilian Institute of Jewish Studies, Shavei Israel, the organization that I founded and chair, will open the first synagogue and beit midrash in Palermo in over 500 years.

It will be overseen by Rabbi Pinhas Punturello, the former chief rabbi of Naples who is Shavei Israel’s emissary to Sicily, and will serve as an educational, cultural and spiritual hub for the growing numbers of people throughout Sicily who are rediscovering their Jewish roots, enabling them to reconnect with the faith of their forefathers.

As I held in my hand the large and heavy key to the site where the ancient synagogue had once stood, I couldn’t help but think about the indestructibility of the Jewish spirit, for neither expulsion nor the Inquisition was able to quash Sicilian Jewry.

The cries of those who were once held in the dungeons of the Steri palace may have fallen silent, but soon enough, with God’s help, the sounds of Shabbat hymns being recited by their descendants will once again resonate in the alleyways of Palermo.

If that isn’t testimony to the eternity of Israel, what is? The writer is founder and chairman of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), which assists lost tribes and other hidden Jewish communities to return to the Jewish people.

Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post

HTTPS://www.breakingisraelnews.com/82377/silent-screams-inquisition-victims-Sicily-opinion/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=58cebfc475-BIN_oped_1_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-58cebfc475-86884129&mc_cid=58cebfc475&mc_eid=5efa18a533#MWAdcI4HVmppLPsU.97

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by Gerlinda

This article struck me full blast in the face because it was Cardinal Ratzinger who headed up the department which would have been known as The Inquisition Department.

This cardinal went on to become Pope Benedict XVI


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Monday, October 28, 2013

The criminal prosecution of yet another Pope came closer to reality this month as Italian politicians agreed to work with the ITCCS in a common law court action against the papacy for its haboring of a wanted fugitive from justice: deposed Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger.

The agreement came after a new eyewitness confirmed the involvement of Ratzinger in a ritual child sacrifice in Holland in August of 1987.

“I saw Joseph Ratzinger murder a little girl at a French chateau in the fall of 1987″ stated the witness, who was a regular participant in the cult ritual torture and killing of children.

“It was ugly and horrible, and it didn’t happen just once. Ratzinger often took part. He and (Dutch Catholic Cardinal) Alfrink and (Bilderberger founder) Prince Bernhard were some of the more prominent men who took part.”

This new witness confirms the account of Toos Nijenhuis, a Dutch woman who went public on May 8 with her eyewitness account of similar crimes involving Ratzinger, Alfrink and Bernhard. (see: http://youtu.be/-A1o1Egi20c)

Soon after his historic resignation from office last February 11, Joseph Ratzinger was convicted of Crimes against Humanity on February 25, 2013 by the Brussels-based International Common Law Court of Justice, and a global citizens arrest warrant was issued against him. Since then, he has evaded arrest within Vatican City under a decree of the present Pope Francis.

The surfacing of this new evidence of Vatican complicity in child murder has prompted a group of Italian politicians to agree to work with the ITCCS in confronting the papacy with a common law court case against the present Pope Francis, Jorge Bergoglio, for his sheltering of Ratzinger and his own complicity in war crimes. The politicians had been in closed negotiations with ITCCS representatives since September 22.

http://itccs.org/2013/10/28/i-saw-joseph-ratzinger-murder-a-little-girl-eyewitness-to-a-1987-ritual-sacrifice-confirms-account-of-toos-nijenhuis-of-holland/


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Disclaimer: Rapture Bible Prophecy Forum, ( http://www.rapturebibleprophecyforum.com ) does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article posted on this site. We do however, encourage a healthy and friendly debate on the issues of our day. Whether you agree or disagree, we encourage you to post your feedback by using the reply button.