(c) 2010-2011 Mardukh

MANKIND MONSTERS

Dear God,

The "Problem of Evil" is philosophically complex. You gave mankind the gift of will and freedom of choice, so that we have
the power to do good or to do evil.

None of us is perfect. But some people have been so notoriously cruel that their sins truly "cry to heaven for vengeance."

Let me not judge any person, but I think
You would want me to recognize the depths
of degradation to which mankind can fall
- to remind myself on occasion of just
how horrendous unrestrained evil can become.

I pray for the wicked individuals who perpetrated the events which I recall here, and I pray, of course, for the many victims
who suffered such inhuman cruelty and lost their lives so painfully and so tragically.

Sadly, religious faith, or belief
as a cultural pretext, was inextricably involved in several of these horrific events.

I remind myself of these tragedies here
to apologize to You, God, in my capacity
as a member of the human race, for these egregious, terrifying crimes and sins
committed by my fellow human beings,
and to caution myself that no one is beyond the temptations of Satan and the commission of evil deeds, large and small.

Here, God, are my understandings.

THE INQUISITION - 1100's-1600's

Before the 12th century, prior to full separation of Church and State, the Catholic Church suppressed heresy, through ecclesiastical proscription, imprisonment
and death.

Pope Gregory IX (who reigned 1227–1241) assigned to the Domincan Order the duty of conducting Inquisition trials, and proscribing punishments, including death.

Convicted heretics were handed over
to the civil authority for punishments
which included horrendous tortures, horrible death by public burning and other incredibly inhumane procedures. Some lucky victims
had bags of gunpowder tied around
their necks, providing them a quick death
as soon as they were set afire.
Ecclesiastic authorities were present
as witnesses to these terrible atrocities.

Jewish converts, Your Chosen People, suspected of remaining secretly faithful
to to their faith, were among the victims,
when Ferdinand and Isabella drove all Jews
out of Spain.

The 1578 handbook for Inquisitors noted that, “punishment does not take place primarily
and per se for the correction and good
of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils
they might otherwise commit."

The "Supreme Sacred Congregation
of the Universal inquisition", later became the “Roman Inquisition.” In 1908 Pope
Saint Pius X renamed it the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office." In 1965
it became the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” as it exists to this day.

Forgive, Lord, all who perpetrated these inhumane tortures and killings, especially reprehensible for having been committed
in Your name. Please bountifully bless
in paradise the many victims
of these heinous crimes.

SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY MASSACRE - 1572

This event was a group of targeted individual assassinations in Paris, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence and killings, all directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion.

Queen CatherinexISon King Charles IX
CatholicxxxxxXXX CatholicXXXXXXXXXXX


Catherine's Daughter + Henry III of NavarreXX
xMargaret of Valois +xMargaret's Husbandxxx
H xxCatholic -----------Protestantxx xPxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxxxxxx

Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Queen Catherine de' Medici,
the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre
took place six days after the wedding
of the King's sister Margaret
to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre
(the future Henry IV of France).
This marriage was an occasion for which many of the most wealthy and prominent Protestant Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris.

The massacre began on 23 August 1572 (the eve of the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle),
two days after the attempted assassination
of the military and political leader of the Huguenots. The King ordered the retaliatory killing of a group of Huguenot leaders,
and the slaughter spread throughout Paris. Lasting several weeks, the massacre expanded outward to other urban centers and into
the countryside. Modern estimates
for the number of dead vary widely,
from 5,000 to 30,000.

The event "printed on Protestant minds
the indelible conviction that Catholicism
was a bloody and treacherous religion."

Have mercy, Lord God, on the victims
and the perpetrators of these horrendous slaughters.

THE TRAIL OF TEARS - 1830's

The United States "Indian Removal Act
of 1830," forced Native American tribes
from their desirable homeland properties
on marches by foot to other territories.
Many suffered from exposure, disease
and starvation on the long journeys to their destinations, and countless thousands died from exhaustion, or starved or froze
to death.

Have mercy, Lord, on those who conceived
and carried out this patently horrendous
and inhuman Act, and on all those helpless Native American innocents, whose lands were stolen for miniscule payment, and who suffered so terribly, or died along the paths through uncharted territory, in this grave injustice and barbaric cruelty.

THE HOLOCAUST - 1941-1945

This frightening event in my own lifetime
is too familiar in recent memory to need explanation here. That civilized societies can be gripped in such maniacal hatred,
and stoop to such enormity of horror,
such barbaric cruelty, and such naked atrocities is frightening.

SUMMATION

Lord have mercy on all those who lived through, or died during, these unspeakable, terrible tragedies, and let them
not be forgotten.

May all these victims of hatred
now rest in peace, robed in shining glory
in the comfort of Your heavenly grace.

Lord, cleanse my own heart of all evil,
all judgment of others, and please let me root out every vestige of wickedness
from my own soul.

All this I pray
in the name of the all-merciful Jesus.

Amen