VATICAN CITY (AP) 鈥� made a historic apology on Monday for the role the Holy See played in legitimizing slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican鈥檚 record a 鈥渨ound in Christian memory.鈥�
Past popes have apologized for Christians鈥� involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave 鈥渋nfidels.鈥�
History鈥檚 first U.S.-born pope, includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, 鈥淢agnifica Humanitas,鈥� (Magnificent Humanity), which was released Monday.
The sweeping manifesto is about safeguarding humanity in an . Leo raised the trans-Atlantic slave trade in relation to what he called the new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fueling, such as the unregulated labor practices in procuring rare minerals needed for AI chips.
Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch History Center, Oxford University, said Leo needed to acknowledge and atone for the Catholic Church’s complicity in historic slavery if he wanted to credibly 鈥渟peak to the current issues of technological enslavement.鈥�
鈥淔or descendants of enslaved persons, this is once again a much needed apology from the pope,鈥� said Butler, who is Black.
Black American Catholics, activists and scholars have long called for the Holy See to atone for its role in the colonial-era trade in human beings, beyond more generic apologies for the involvement of individual Christians.
鈥淚t 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,鈥� Leo wrote. 鈥淔or this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.鈥�
Centuries of legitimizing slavery for European colonizers
The Vatican has insisted that it always upheld the dignity of all human beings as children of God. But a series of 15th-century directives from authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.
In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right 鈥渢o invade, conquer, fight and subjugate鈥� and take all possessions 鈥� including land 鈥� of 鈥淪aracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ鈥� anywhere.
The bull also gave the Portuguese permission 鈥渢o reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.鈥�
That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the , the theory that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.
Nicholas V鈥檚 permissions to the Portuguese were 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 of 鈥淎ll Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.鈥�
Spanish kings received the rights for the Americas.
In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the , but it never formally rescinded, abrogated or rejected the bulls themselves. The Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn鈥檛 be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and weren’t to be enslaved.
Holy See late to condemn slavery, Leo says
In his encyclical, Leo recalled that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was the first pope to explicitly condemn slavery in 1888, long after many countries had abolished it. Before that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, even church institutions had slaves.
In acknowledging the Holy See鈥檚 role and the 15th-century papal bulls, Leo wrote in his encyclical: 鈥淎lready in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of 鈥榠nfidels.鈥欌��
Leo said that it wasn’t possible to judge the morality of the decisions with today鈥檚 standards.
鈥淵et neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,鈥� he said.
The pope said that the church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, 鈥渆ven if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.鈥�
鈥淭his constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached,鈥� he said.
Leo said that the church must firmly condemn all forms of trafficking related to the digital technological revolution 鈥渋f 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.鈥�
Leo鈥檚 own family history and past apologies
Kellerman, the scholar, welcomed Leo鈥檚 apology but said more needs to be done to further acknowledge and atone for how the Catholic Church legitimized and expanded slavery.
鈥淧ope Leo has strengthened the moral credibility of the church with this admission and apology today,鈥� he told The Associated Press. 鈥淗opefully a future document will explain in more detail the church鈥檚 involvement with slaveholding. As a scholar I have some quibbles with the wording, but this is a truly remarkable moment.鈥�
During a 1985 visit to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked forgiveness of Africans for the slave trade on behalf of Christians who participated in it. In a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, which was the largest slave-trading center in West Africa, he denounced the injustice of slavery and called it a 鈥渢ragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.鈥�
According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 of Leo鈥檚 American ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole or a free person of color. His family tree includes slaveholders and enslaved people, Gates wrote in The New York Times.
During a visit to Angola last month, Leo prayed at a Catholic shrine at the site of an during Portugal鈥檚 colonial rule. While at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, Leo recalled the 鈥渟orrow and great suffering鈥� Angolans endured for centuries, but he didn鈥檛 refer specifically to slavery.
___
Winfield reported from Middletown, Connecticut.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP鈥檚 with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
