Why is there a political movement to white-wash the history of the Inquisition?

Technically and legally speaking the Catholic church is correct, the Inquisition would not have done any actual executions because that was tied to secular authority. They could recommend it and ask for it but they could not actually conduct them as a legal means. Most of this is a counterbalance to the centuries of distortion of what the Inquisition did and what they were there for. They have been negatively portrayed more than what the evidence of historical record should allow and so this is an attempt to rehabilitate the image, not necessarily to white wash it, but to present a more nuanced and correct view of it.