Pope Leo XIV Apologizes for Vatican’s Role in Slavery
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV made an unprecedented apology on Monday for the Holy See’s historical role in legitimizing the slave trade, acknowledging for the first time that past popes themselves gave European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave non-Christians. The apology, delivered in his first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), calls the Vatican’s centuries-long record a “wound in Christian memory.”
“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,” the Pope wrote. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
While previous popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, no pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that the papacy itself played in authorizing slavery through a series of 15th-century papal directives, as reported by AP News.
Centuries of Papal Authority and the Slave Trade
The apology centers on papal bulls issued in the 1450s by Pope Nicholas V — Dum Diversas (1452) and Romanus Pontifex (1455) — which granted Portuguese sovereigns the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” non-Christians and “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” These bulls formed the legal and theological foundation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimized colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.
According to The Guardian, the permissions were confirmed or renewed by Popes Callixtus III (1456), Sixtus IV (1481), and Leo X (1514). Spanish kings received similar rights for the Americas. In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally rescinded or abrogated the original bulls themselves.
Pope Leo XIV acknowledged this history directly in his encyclical, writing: “Already 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 ‘infidels.’”
A Pope with a Personal Connection to Slavery’s Legacy
The apology carries profound personal significance. Pope Leo XIV — born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago — is history’s first U.S.-born pope. According to genealogical research by Henry Louis Gates Jr. published in The New York Times, 17 of Leo’s American ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole, or free persons of color. His family tree includes both slaveholders and enslaved people.
During a visit to Angola in April 2026, Leo prayed at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, a site that was an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule. The Vatican News report on the encyclical noted that the Pope recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries.
The Church’s Long Delay
In his encyclical, Leo noted that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was the first pope to explicitly condemn slavery in 1888 — long after many countries had already abolished it. “Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” the current Pope wrote.
The church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, Leo said, “even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognized.” He described the Vatican’s record as “a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached.”
Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church, welcomed the apology but noted more work remains. “Pope Leo has strengthened the moral credibility of the church with this admission and apology today,” Kellerman told the National Catholic Reporter. “Hopefully a future document will explain in more detail the church’s involvement with slaveholding.”
AI, Modern Slavery, and the Encyclical’s Broader Message
The apology is embedded within a sweeping encyclical that addresses artificial intelligence, war, and the dignity of work. Leo explicitly links historical slavery to what he calls new forms of exploitation in the digital age, such as unregulated labor practices in procuring rare minerals needed for AI chips.
Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch History Center at Oxford University, said Leo needed to acknowledge the Church’s complicity in historic slavery to credibly “speak to the current issues of technological enslavement.” She told AP News: “For descendants of enslaved persons, this is once again a much needed apology from the pope.”
What Comes Next
While the apology is historic, scholars note that the Vatican has still not formally rescinded the 15th-century papal bulls themselves. The encyclical also does not outline concrete reparative actions, leaving open questions about whether financial restitution or institutional reforms might follow.
Nevertheless, the move marks a significant milestone in the Catholic Church’s ongoing reckoning with its past — and positions Pope Leo XIV as a pontiff willing to confront the darkest chapters of the institution he leads, even as he calls for vigilance against new forms of injustice in the age of artificial intelligence.
The full text of Magnifica Humanitas is available on the Vatican’s website.