- Vatican acknowledges church’s institutional responsibility in supporting slavery during colonial era
- Pope connects apology to modern forms of exploitation, like labor practices in tech industry
- Apology seen as long-awaited reckoning for Black Catholics who faced church’s history of racism
It’s a new era at the Vatican, and history is being made in the name of social justice.
In a highly symbolic move, Pope Leo XIV issued a formal apology for the Catholic Church’s direct role in legitimizing slavery, according to AP News reporting. The public penitence marks the first time a pope has explicitly acknowledged the Vatican’s institutional responsibility in supporting the enslavement of non-Christians during the colonial era. Monday, the Vatican released Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), the pope’s first encyclical where the apology was published.
“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.”
The AP notes that Leo described the Church’s history with slavery as “a wound in Christian memory” and asked forgiveness “in the name of the Church” for the suffering caused by centuries of religiously sanctioned oppression. Previous popes had apologized for the actions of individual Christians involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but none had directly admitted that past popes themselves helped authorize and legitimize slavery through official papal decrees.
University of Dayton historian Shannen Dee Williams authored a book called Subversive Habits about the history of Black American Catholic nuns, who embraced the apology as a long-awaited reckoning.
“The Catholic Church has never been an innocent bystander in the history of white supremacy,” said Williams. “Black Catholics have waited a long time to hear the Vatican speak honestly about the church’s leading roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery–and thus by extension the enduring systems of anti-Black racism in the world today.”
NewsOne reports that Pope Leo’s righteous act of accountability didn’t stop with chattel slavery, also connected it to what he called modern forms of exploitation created by the digital age. His encyclical focused heavily on the dangers of artificial intelligence, warning that unchecked technological development could produce new systems of “digital slavery,” especially through exploitative labor practices tied to mining rare minerals and the concentration of power among tech corporations.
While words alone are not enough, many are praising the apology as a major step toward healing the everlasting injuries that have done unto Black and brown people under the supposed word of God.
What say you about this unprecedented mea culpa?
