The Pope and Slavery*

Back when they built ships to transport slaves, they added near the top what they called a bishop’s chair. That is where a bishop came on board and from that chair converted en masse those who were below and would be sold as slaves. Without their consent or understanding, they were declared Christians, and the whole endeavor of slavery could then be justified as a means to convert infidels to Christianity.

In his recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV apologized for the Church’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, acknowledging those actions as having legitimized it. While the pope has not openly apologized for slavery, the fact he wanted this apology included in this encyclical is, to be colloquial, a very big deal. Especially so since the apology includes condemnation of the church’s silence for the centuries hence, which the encyclical labels as “a wound in Christian memory.”

*reposted from the GGID page