Pope Leo Has Issued A Historic Apology, Denouncing The Vatican’s Role In Slavery For The First Time
"It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many," Leo wrote.
Pope Leo XIV has issued a historic apology for the role the Vatican played in authorizing the enslavement of millions of people.
In the 15th century, a series of official papal orders, known as papal bulls, gave Portugal and Spain explicit permission to seize land and enslave people across Africa and the Americas.
These bulls formed the basis of what historians call the Doctrine of Discovery, the legal and religious theory used to justify European colonial land seizure in Africa and the Americas.
In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally cancelled or rejected the bulls themselves, according to AP.
On Monday, May 25, Leo explicitly acknowledged and apologized for the Church's own hand in legitimizing slavery.
Leo apologized for the role of popes themselves, specifically, for the papal orders that gave European kingdoms the religious and legal authority to conquer, subjugate and enslave non-Christians in the first place.
The apology appeared in Leo's first encyclical, a major formal letter addressed to the entire Catholic Church, titled “Magnifica Humanitas,” a 42,000 word manifesto that focuses on “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.”
The letter is primarily about the rise of artificial intelligence and how the Church should respond to it.
Leo raised the history of slavery in connection with new forms of modern slavery, including forced and unregulated labour used to mine the rare minerals needed to build AI chips.
In the encyclical, Leo acknowledged that the Vatican had "intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of infidels.”
"It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many," Leo wrote. "For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon."
Leo’s apology responds to decades of calls from Black American Catholics, activist"It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many," Leo wrote. "For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon." and historians who argued the Vatican had never honestly confronted its foundational role in the colonial slave trade.
Leo stopped short of calling for reparations, and the papal bulls that authorized slavery remain formally on the books.
He warned that if the Church failed to clearly condemn today's forms of exploitation, including forced labour tied to AI, it might one day have to ask for pardon again.
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