Pope Leo XIV apologises for Vatican’s historical role in slavery

Pope Leo XIV has issued a historical apology implicit the Vatican’s past relation successful legitimising slavery, describing the delayed condemnation of the signifier by the Catholic Church arsenic “a coiled successful Christian memory.”

The apology was contained successful a large substance titled Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), successful which the pontiff besides warned astir the emergence of “new forms of slavery” linked to the modern integer economy.

In the document, Pope Leo acknowledged that religion institutions owned slaves until the Middle Ages and admitted that the Vatican had, astatine antithetic periods successful history, intervened successful ways that regulated and legitimised forms of quality subjugation.

“In the aboriginal modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to requests from sovereigns, intervened respective times successful bid to modulate and legitimise forms of subjugation, and, successful definite cases, the enslavement of ‘infidels’,” the Pope wrote.

He noted that it was not until the 19th period that the Catholic Church intelligibly articulated “a formal, implicit and cosmopolitan condemnation of slavery.”

“For this, successful the sanction of the church, I sincerely inquire for pardon,” Pope Leo stated.

While erstwhile popes had apologised for the engagement of Christians successful the transatlantic enslaved commercialized and different humanities injustices, Leo’s remarks marked 1 of the strongest acknowle...