05/26/2026
In a moment steeped in history and heavy with moral reckoning, Pope Leo XIV delivered one of the Vatican’s most sweeping apologies for the Catholic Church’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The Chicago-born pope — who traces his family ancestry to both slave owners and the enslaved — delivered the apology as part of his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” on Monday. He spoke before bishops, scholars, and descendants of enslaved communities gathered at the Vatican.
Historians have long pointed to papal decrees from the 15th century granting European empires religious authority to seize lands and enslave non-Christians — resulting in millions of Africans being taken from their homes. While previous popes have denounced slavery broadly, critics have argued the Vatican never fully confronted its role. Monday’s remarks signaled a sharp break from that silence.
Shannen Dee Williams, a historian at the University of Dayton, told the Associated Press this was a “monumental step toward the kind of essential truth-telling and reparation that many Catholics have prayed and worked to witness.”
Pope Leo connected the history of the slave trade to modern abuses, warning against the global crises of human trafficking, forced labor, and racial oppression.
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