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Pope Leo XIV
This Monday, Pope Leo presented the clearest apology to date made by a pontiff for the role of the Catholic Church in slavery, recognizing both the delay in condemning this practice and his historical involvement in its legitimization.
In a central passage of his first papal encyclical, the Pope Leo VIV stated that the Church took centuries to fully recognize “the scourge of slavery” as incompatible with human dignity, classifying this legacy as “a wound in Christian memory”.
“Therefore, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for forgiveness”, he wrote in a manifesto that addresses several topics, and in which he expresses “deep pain” for the suffering endured by enslaved people.
In the document, Leão recognizes that Church authorities sometimes responded to rulers by regulating and legitimizing forms of subjugation, including the enslavement of non-Christiansand that, before this period, in the Middle Ages, ecclesiastical institutions had their own slaves.
According to the Pope, the Church only reached a “formal, absolute and universal condemnation” of slavery in the 19th century, under the pontificate of Leo XIIIafter what the current pontiff described as a long period of incoherence between doctrine and practice.
The statements represent the most explicit papal admission to date of institutional responsibility, going beyond previous statements by other popes, which focused on actions of individual Christians and not the Vatican itselfnote to .
O Pope John Paul IIduring a visit to Africa in 1985, asked Africans for forgiveness for suffering caused by “men belonging to Christian nations” in the slave trade.
Francis, predecessor of Leocondemned the situation of modern-day slaves and formally repudiated 15th century papal documents which were used by colonial powers to lend legitimacy to their actions, including slavery.
But these statements fell short of a direct approach to the role of the papacy, rather framing the responsibility in broader terms, linked to Christians or historical circumstances.
Genealogical investigations published after Leo’s election last year showed that Leo XIV, the first pope born in the United States, had a diverse ancestry that included both enslaved people and owners of slaves.
Disarm AI
Leão’s intervention was made in his first encyclicalwhich he called “” (“Magnificent Humanity”), in which he also addressed the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence and warned of new forms of exploitation associated with the global economy.
According to the Supreme Pontiff, technological innovations are not neutralbeing able to “increase participation and justice”, but also “increase inequalities, control and exclusion”, warning of the danger of AI “concentrating in the hands of a few”.
Warning for “clearly anti-human uses” of AI, “such as the manipulation of information or the violation of privacy”, also draws attention to a more subtle deception, when systems, “presenting themselves as neutral and objective, reflect and reinforce stereotypes or ideological positions those who designed and programmed them.”
In the text with which he inaugurates his teaching, with 105 pages, which he presents as a manifesto for social justice and peacethe Pope also calls for the protection of humanity, the promotion of truth and the dignity of work. “Humanity, in all its greatness and in all its frailties, should never be replaced or surpassed”, says Leão.
“It is a document about the defense of human dignity in the context of the artificial intelligence society”, summarizes the Vaticanist Filipe Dominguesprofessor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, in Rome, and director of the Lay Center, also in Rome, cited by .
