Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Holy See's own role in legitimizing slavery

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press, via KCRA

Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Holy See's own role in legitimizing slavery

Updated: 3:20 AM PDT May 25, 2026
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday for the role the Holy See itself played in legitimizing slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican’s record a “wound in Christian memory.” … Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope has ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes themselves played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

History’s first U.S.-born pope, whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” (Magnificent Humanity), which was released Monday. … The sweeping manifesto is about safeguarding humanity in an era of increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. Leo raised the trans-Atlantic slave trade in relation to what he called the new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fueling, such as the unregulated labor required to procure rare minerals needed for AI chips.

In doing so, Leo responded to decades of calls by Black American Catholics, activists and scholars for the Holy See to atone for its own role in the colonial-era trade in human beings. … “It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

Centuries of legitimizing slavery for European colonizers

The Vatican has insisted that it always upheld the dignity of all human beings as children of God. But a series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians. … In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” anywhere. … The bull also gave the Portuguese permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” … That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.kcra.com/article/pope-leo-xiv-apologizes-vatican-role-slavery/71399472

---

Gee, thanks.
—————-

Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2026/05/pope-leo-apologizes-for-holy-sees-role-in-slavery/

[hlthe2b]

1. Pope Leo is going to make a major impact, given he is not afraid to speak truth...

and especially given his ability to speak to the abusive acts of certain Western nations.

[Clouds Passing]

2. Love this man

[LudwigPastorius]

3. Having to apologize for a centuries-long oopsie kind of puts a big crack in that whole "papal infallibility" thing.

Doesn't it?

[ancianita]

4. Big Nope. Infallibility refers to statements made Ex Cathedra. NO pope has ever spoken ex cathedra to declare slavery

a morally acceptable practice.

The doctrine of ex cathedra (papal infallibility) is invoked when the pope speaks definitively on matters of faith and morals for the entire Church. No papal statement endorsing or legitimizing slavery has ever met the strict theological criteria required for this classification.

Other popes explicitly opposed the enslavement of specific groups early on. Pope Eugene IV issued the papal bull Sicut Dudum in 1435 condemning the enslavement of newly converted Indigenous people in the Canary Islands, and Pope Paul III issued Sublimis Deus in 1537 forbidding the enslavement of all indigenous peoples in the Americas.

In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI officially condemned the trans-Atlantic slave trade in his bull In Supremo Apostolatus. Later, the Church formally declared chattel slavery — based on race or treating human beings as property — to be a grave violation of human dignity.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. It's a shame that that this gesture has gotten lost and drowned out in all the absurd news.

Many along much of the west coast of Africa swept up by the Portuguese were Muslims, who were then forcibly converted to Christianity.

And it took an unlikely American Pope to do this.