Editing Spanish Inquisition (section)

== "The Inquisition Still Exists" ==

There's a talking point in certain [[Urban Fantasy]] works that the Inquisition still exists.

And, yes, the Real World truth is that ''a version of'' the Inquisition does still exist. But it's wildly different from the (in)famous versions or what you might picture, so "The Inquisition still exists!" is only sorta true. 

To explain: The main Catholic Church's version is the [[wikipedia:Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] <ref>As it is ''currently'' known; it's gone by several names, historically, mainly because of the bad press the Spanish one had, and a few reorganizations.</ref> on which the Spanish one was based, still exists. But the most they can do is excommunicate you. For more detail, see about the Church controlled Inquisition in the Origins section, above.

To continue from there, because they served a continuing valid purpose, and were usually fairly light hands, the main Inquisition never really went away. And with the removal of "heresy" from criminal law, any secular power they had is gone. Nowadays, they're an internal affairs watchdog and only a concern if you work for the Catholic Church.

While they no longer exist as an integrated state sponsored law enforcement group since the inquisition was itself an early police force & intelligence agency their methods are studied by investigators and law enforcement agencies to this day.