BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
Pope Leo XIV issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in legitimizing slavery during the colonial era, acknowledging for the first time that past popes explicitly authorized the enslavement and subjugation of non-Christians and describing the Vatican’s historical record as “a wound in Christian memory.”
The unprecedented statement came in Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), a sweeping document focused on the ethical dangers posed by artificial intelligence, digital exploitation and modern forms of economic inequality.
The encyclical marks a significant moment in the history of the Catholic Church, as no previous pope had publicly apologized specifically for the actions of the Holy See itself in authorizing or legitimizing slavery through official papal decrees during the age of European colonial expansion.
Previous pontiffs had expressed sorrow over the role individual Christians played in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but Leo XIV went further by directly addressing the institutional role of the Vatican and the historical actions of earlier popes.
“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 in the encyclical. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
The apology has drawn international attention not only because of its historical significance, but also because Leo XIV is the first American-born pope in history and comes from a family background that reportedly includes both enslaved people and slave owners.
The encyclical was presented Monday at the Vatican by senior church officials including Pietro Parolin and theologians involved in the document’s development.
Leo XIV connected the Church’s past failures regarding slavery with what he described as emerging forms of exploitation linked to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and global digital industries.
He warned that humanity risks creating new systems of oppression through unregulated technological development, exploitative labor practices and the extraction of rare minerals used in manufacturing advanced AI systems and computer chips.
The pope called for strict international regulation of artificial intelligence and urged technology companies to prioritize human dignity and the common good over profit and unchecked innovation.
The document argued that modern societies must learn from historical injustices to avoid repeating similar moral failures in a new technological age.
“If we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future for having failed to respect the treasure of human dignity that is required by our faith,” Leo wrote, the Church and world leaders must firmly oppose all forms of exploitation tied to the digital revolution.
Historians and theologians said the apology represented a major shift in the Vatican’s willingness to confront controversial aspects of its past.
Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch History Center at Oxford University, said the acknowledgment was necessary if the Church hoped to speak credibly about modern forms of exploitation and technological inequality.
“For descendants of enslaved persons, this is once again a much needed apology from the pope,” Butler said.
Black Catholic scholars and activists have long urged the Vatican to move beyond broad statements of regret and directly address the role papal authority played in legitimizing colonial slavery.
At the center of the controversy are a series of 15th-century papal decrees issued during the early expansion of European colonial powers.
One of the most significant was the 1452 papal bull Dum Diversas, issued by Pope Nicholas V, which granted Portuguese rulers authority to invade, conquer and subjugate non-Christian populations in Africa and elsewhere.
The decree explicitly authorized the enslavement of “Saracens, pagans and other infidels” and allowed their lands and possessions to be seized permanently.
A second decree, Romanus Pontifex, issued three years later, further strengthened Portuguese colonial rights and became part of the legal and theological foundation for what later became known as the Doctrine of Discovery.
The doctrine was used by European colonial powers to justify the seizure of lands across Africa and the Americas and the subjugation of Indigenous populations.
According to Christopher J. Kellerman, author of All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church, later popes including Pope Callixtus III, Pope Sixtus IV and Pope Leo X reaffirmed or renewed these permissions for colonial rulers.
Spanish monarchs later received similar authorizations regarding territories in the Americas.
In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery following years of pressure from Indigenous communities and historians. However, critics noted at the time that the Holy See stopped short of formally rescinding the original papal bulls themselves.
The Vatican has long argued that later Church teachings, including the 1537 papal bull Sublimis Deus, affirmed the humanity and rights of Indigenous peoples and rejected their enslavement.
Still, Leo XIV acknowledged Monday that the Church had taken far too long to clearly and unequivocally condemn slavery.
In the encyclical, he noted that even Church institutions owned slaves during antiquity and the Middle Ages and observed that it was not until 1888 that Pope Leo XIII explicitly condemned slavery.
“Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” Leo XIV wrote.
He added that while the Church had long taught the dignity of every human being, “it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.”
“This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached,” he wrote.
Kellerman welcomed the apology and described it as a significant step toward greater accountability within the Catholic Church.
“Pope Leo has strengthened the moral credibility of the church with this admission and apology today,” he said, while also arguing that further historical acknowledgment and education would still be necessary.
The apology also revived attention on previous efforts by Catholic leaders to address the legacy of slavery.
In 1985, Pope John Paul II asked Africans for forgiveness for the role Christians played in the slave trade during a visit to Cameroon. Seven years later, during a visit to Gorée Island in Senegal — one of the most infamous slave-trading centers in West Africa — he condemned slavery as a tragedy carried out by societies claiming to be Christian.
Genealogical research published by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed that Leo XIV’s own family history reflects the complex racial realities of American history. According to census records and archival documents, at least 17 of the pope’s American ancestors were identified as Black, Creole, mixed-race or free people of color, while other branches of the family reportedly included slaveholders.
Last month, during a visit to Angola, Leo XIV prayed at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, a Catholic site historically associated with Portugal’s colonial-era slave trade in Africa. During the visit he reflected on the “sorrow and great suffering” endured by Angolans over centuries of colonial rule, though he did not explicitly reference slavery at the time.
Monday’s encyclical is already being viewed by historians, theologians and human rights advocates as one of the most consequential Vatican documents in recent decades, combining a direct reckoning with the Church’s historical role in slavery with a broader warning about the ethical dangers emerging from artificial intelligence and unchecked technological power.
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