The opening of the archives of the ancient "Sant'Uffizio", or Roman Inquisition, has been a historical event. Scholars and researchers will be able to investigate on files that have been inaccessible for even more than four hundred years.
The drama of Counter-Reformation, with its tribunals of the faith, victims, administrative machinery and censure of books, will be known with more accuracy and perhaps maturity. The history of Inquisition is not only a history of intolerance and prosecution. Some historians are convinced that its ecclesiastical judges were milder than their colleagues of other tribunals, at least in some fields, such as witch hunting, a phenomen that devastated Northern, protestant countries. The free access to the archives of "Sant'Uffizio, now "Congregazione per la dottrina della fede", was announced and commented during a meeting held in Rome, on January 22nd, during which cardinal Ratzinger explained the new orientation of the Roman Church on the subject. During her intervention, an American scholar complained about the lack of information (firstly on Internet) as to how researchers will be admitted and what they are going to find inside "Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio". Here you can read a precise presentation of the archives by Mons. Alejandro Cifres, director, and other contributions by prelates and experts. If English translation is needed, please send us an E-mail.

F.G.

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