I have been studying the Catholic religion lately and a great question came to mind which is explained below.
We know that despite all the differences in branches of Christianity, most denominations share in common the same basic beliefs. We almost all believe Christ died to save us from our imperfect selfs.
Therefore, I did some research on previous persecutions here and in the associated links. According to the Bible Jesus himself and all of his followers are commanded to "keep the Sabbath holy". The Bible also explicitly states that the Sabbath that God has commanded is on the Seventh Day of the week or Saturday.
The Links also describe how the Catholic Church and Spain used evidence that the families of potential Jews were celebrating the Sabbath on the correct day to persecute the Jews. The Inquisitions in general were supported by the pope and the church despite the fact that in Matthew 23:23 Jesus specifically demands mercy. All known versions of the Bible and in every one the meaning remains the same.
Furthermore Luke 6:36, James 2:13, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 103:1-22, Titus 3:5, Psalm 23:6, John 3:16, Hosea 6:6 and the extremely point-on verses in Matthew 9:13 and Mathew 12:7 all demand mercy or say something about it. I could go on and on but I would lose interest after the umpteenth verse.
I mean no offense to Catholics despite what my recent questions might suggest and there are many Catholics who are just as righteous and faithful as any other believer, but my question is the following.
How does the modern Catholic Church justify this defiance to what Jesus said about mercy being BEFORE justice? After all, the Catholic Church believes in Papal Infallibility so does the church not recognize that this was wrong according to the very religious scripture that our Lord commanded them to follow whole-heartedly?
(As a side note, the two questions I have asked are directly related and in my opinion would not be complete without each other. They are related because the church prosecuted Jews as well as changed their religious observance of the sabbath to separate themselves from the Jews to avoid as much as possible being seen as Jewish trouble-makers by Rome)
Again, I am just trying to learn about the Catholic Church because my brother recently converted to Catholicism. I do not mean to even imply that the Catholic Church is anything bad or wrong which is what three of my Catholic relatives thought when I asked them.