Pope Leo XIV makes historic request for forgiveness for the Church's role in legitimizing slavery

Pope Leo XIV at the Mass of Pentecost in St. Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
Pope Leo He called the Vatican's past a "wound in Christian memory."
Previous papacies had already apologized for the involvement of Christians in the transatlantic slave trade. But no pope has publicly acknowledged - nor apologized for - the role of former pontiffs in explicitly authorizing European sovereigns to subjugate and enslave "infidels."
The first pope born in the United States, Leo humanity in an era of increasing dependence on artificial intelligence. In addressing the topic, the pope linked the transatlantic slave trade to new forms of slavery and colonialism driven by the digital revolution, such as the unregulated labor used in extracting rare minerals needed for AI chips.
With this, Leo the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many, in contrast to their immeasurable dignity as people infinitely loved by the Lord," the pope wrote. "Therefore, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for forgiveness."
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Centuries of legitimizing slavery
The Vatican maintains that it has always defended the dignity of all human beings as children of God. However, a series of 15th-century decrees authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer territories in Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.
In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V published the papal bull "Dum Diversas", which granted the king of Portugal and his successors the right to "invade, conquer, combat and subjugate" "Saracens, pagans and other infidels".
The text also authorized the Portuguese to reduce these people to "perpetual slavery".
This bull and another document issued three years later, the "Romanus Pontifex", served as the basis for the so-called Doctrine of Discovery, a theory used to legitimize the colonial seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.
The permissions given by Nicholas V were later confirmed or renewed by Popes Callistus III, Sixtus IV and Leo X.
In 2023, The Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but never officially annulled the papal bulls themselves.

The Holy See states that a later document, Sublimis Deus, from 1537, reaffirmed that indigenous peoples should not be deprived of freedom, property or enslaved.
Church was slow to condemn slavery
In the encyclical, Leo In addition, according to the pontiff, even institutions of the Church owned slaves.
Recognizing the role of the Holy See itself and the papal bulls of the 15th century, Leo It is possible to judge decisions of the past only by current standards, but he said that this does not reduce the delay of society and the Church in denouncing slavery.
"This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, from which we cannot consider ourselves disconnected", he wrote.
Leo by the slave trade carried out by Christians.
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Family history and previous requests
During a visit to Cameroon in 1985, Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness from Africans for the slave trade carried out by Christians, but without mentioning the direct role of the popes.
In 1992, during a visit to Gorée Island, in Senegal - one of the largest centers of slave trafficking in West Africa - John Paul II called slavery "tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian."
According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 American ancestors of Leo XIV were black and appear in official records as mulattoes, blacks, creoles or free people of color. The pope's family tree includes both enslaved people and slave owners.
Last month, during a visit to Angola, Leo XIV prayed at a Catholic sanctuary located in an area that was an important center for the trafficking of enslaved Africans during Portuguese colonial rule. On the occasion, he mentioned the "suffering and great pain" experienced by Angolans over the centuries, but without directly mentioning slavery.

Source: G1

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