Pope Leo XIV issued a historic apology Monday for the Holy See’s role in legitimizing slavery and for centuries of silence in condemning it, describing the Vatican’s past as “a wound in Christian memory.”
While previous popes have expressed regret over Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, no pontiff had publicly acknowledged or apologized for the direct role earlier popes played in granting European powers authority to conquer, subjugate and enslave so-called “infidels.”
The first American-born pope, whose own family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), released Monday.
The broad manifesto focuses on protecting human dignity in an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. Leo linked the trans-Atlantic slave trade to what he described as modern forms of slavery and colonialism emerging through the digital revolution, including the largely unregulated labor used to extract rare minerals essential for AI technology.
In doing so, Leo responded to decades of calls by Black American Catholics, activists and scholars for the Holy See to atone for its role in the colonial-era trade in human beings.
