Pope Leo XIV issued an apology yesterday for the Holy See’s role in legitimizing slavery and for failing to condemn it for centuries, acknowledging the Vatican’s directives that authorized European sovereigns to subjugate and enslave non-Christians. This apology comes after centuries during which papal bulls explicitly granted permission to "reduce their persons to perpetual slavery," forming the ideological basis for the colonial-era seizure of land and the systematic extraction of labor in Africa and the Americas.
The apology, delivered in his first encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas,” marks the first time a pope has publicly acknowledged and apologized for the direct role past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.” Pope Leo XIV stated that it was impossible to judge the morality of these historical decisions with today’s standards, yet conceded the "delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery."
Sanctioning Perpetual Slavery
A series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which granted 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. This bull explicitly gave permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery,” laying the groundwork for the massive accumulation of wealth through forced labor.
This bull, along with Romanus Pontifex issued three years later, established the Doctrine of Discovery. This theory served to legitimize the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas, providing an ideological framework for the dispossession of indigenous populations and the expansion of European capital. The permissions granted by Nicholas V were subsequently confirmed or renewed by Pope Callixtus III in 1456, Pope Sixtus IV in 1481, and Pope Leo X in 1514, according to the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author. Spanish kings received similar rights for the Americas, further entrenching the church's role in the global system of enslavement.
The State's Ideological Role
The Vatican has consistently maintained that it upheld the dignity of all human beings. However, the historical record shows church institutions and even popes, such as Gregory the Great, held slaves in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Shannen Dee Williams, a historian at the University of Dayton, noted that “The Catholic Church has never been an innocent bystander in the history of white supremacy,” highlighting the church’s leading roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery, which contributed to "the enduring systems of anti-Black racism in the world today.”
Black American Catholics, activists, and scholars have long demanded that the Holy See atone for its institutional role in the colonial-era trade in human beings, moving beyond generic apologies for individual Christians. Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch History Center, Oxford University, emphasized that for descendants of enslaved persons, this apology is "much needed" if the church is to credibly address "current issues of technological enslavement."
Limits of Atonement
Pope Leo XIV’s apology arrives "eighteen centuries" after the church’s doctrine affirmed human dignity and "long after many countries had abolished" slavery. While the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery 3 years ago, it has never formally rescinded, abrogated, or rejected the original papal bulls that authorized enslavement. This distinction underscores the limited scope of the current acknowledgment.
The Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, while welcoming the apology, stated that "more needs to be done to further acknowledge how the Catholic Church legitimized and expanded slavery." He noted "some quibbles with the wording," suggesting the need for a future document to explain in more detail the church’s involvement with slaveholding. Previous papal apologies, such as St. John Paul II’s 41 years ago in Cameroon, asked forgiveness on behalf of Christians who participated in the slave trade, but not for the popes or the institution itself. Pope Leo XIV himself recalled the "sorrow and great suffering" Angolans endured for centuries during a visit last month, but did not specifically refer to slavery at that time.
The Pope’s encyclical also calls for the church to condemn all forms of trafficking related to the digital technological revolution, linking them to "new forms of slavery and colonialism." This framing positions the issue as a moral failing rather than a direct consequence of an economic system that relies on the systematic underpayment and exploitation of labor, historically sanctioned by institutions like the Holy See. Genealogical research by Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that 17 of Leo’s American ancestors were Black, and his family tree includes both slaveholders and enslaved people, connecting the current pontiff directly to the historical structures of exploitation.