Memorial for victims of Inquisition

The tribunals were responsible for organizing the auto-da-fe, public penance rituals for those considered heretics by church inquisitors. It was responsible for the deportation, sentencing and death of hundreds of Jews.

In the "Petition against Forgetfulness" sent to the Portuguese Parliament in March, historian and author of Jewish and Inquisition works Jorge E.D.C. Martins said that it is necessary for the government to admit errors committed in the past. "An important step is lacking for acknowledging the harmful consequences, for the Portuguese and inhabitants of Portugal's former colonies, of the establishment of the Inquisition on May 23, 1536, which legally stayed in place for 285 years longer," the petition read. 

The Portuguese Inquisition was established following the marriage of Portuguese king Manuel I and the Spanish princess Maria of Aragon, and came on the heels of Spain's better-known Inquisition. The goal of the Portuguese Inquisition was to root out those known as "conversos" or "marranos," Jews who had converted to Catholicism but were suspected of secretly practicing their former religion.

Cassandra Gomes-Hochberg