For Release: April 23 , 2007
Murder, betrayal, terror and torture -- every detail of the Inquisition was documented by the Catholic Church in secret files that have been locked away for centuries. But in 1998, more than 700 years after the Inquisition began, the Vatican finally opened the sealed archives of the longest and most notorious suppression in religious history. Secret Files of the Inquisition , a four-part docudrama that portrays the true stories of the tragic victims of the religious intolerance of the Inqusition, airs Wednesdays, beginning May 9 at 9/8 p.m. CT on KET1.
Narrated by actor Colm Feore, the program draws on the Catholic Church's documents and historical research to tell its tale through detailed re-creations of pivotal events -- from the Inquisition's all-out war on the Cathars in 13th and 14th-century France to its last determined effort to maintain power in the face of the 19th century's rising democratic tide.
Each episode features first-person testimonies from the files -- verbatim accounts from nobles and peasants, priests and scholars and mothers and fathers defending themselves and their families against accusations of heresy, literally arguing for their lives.
Secret Files of the Inquisition also includes insights from some of the world's foremost writers and researchers on the Inquisition, including Catholic theologian Rev. Joseph A. Di Noia, Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican Medieval scholar David Gitlitz ( Secrecy & Deceit , A Drizzle of Honey ); historian and papacy expert Stephen Haliczer, Northern Illinois University; novelist Charmaine Craig, author of The Good Men ; David Kertzer, author of The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara , The Popes Against the Jews and Prisoner of the Vatican ; and Agostino Borromeo of Sapienza University in Rome.
Secret Files of the Inquisition is a co-p roduc tion of Inquisition Productions, Inc., Insight Film, New Atlantis, France5, VisionTV and Beyond International. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.