By Fortune Madondo

Introduction

Exactly a day after the 63rd anniversary of Africa day, on Monday, 26 May 2026, the head of the Vatican or worldwide Catholic church, Pope Leo XIV, came clean on the theological, moral and foundational role played by the Catholic Church in legitimising and sanitising one of the worst crimes against humanity- the slave trade.

Historic Apology

Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday, 26 May 2026, for the Holy See’s role in legitimising slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican’s record a “wound in Christian memory”. Pope Leo XIV delivered this historic apology in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity). Past popes have apologised for Christians’ involvement in the Trans- Atlantic slave trade. But no Pope had ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologised for, the role that past Popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels”. Leo said the Church took centuries to fully recognise “the scourge of slavery” as incompatible with human dignity.“For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon”, Pope Leo XIV wrote, expressing “deep sorrow ”.

Pope Leo XIV added that, “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”. At the same time, the Pope also came clean admitting that the Vatican as an institution itself, owned slaves during the Middle Ages. According to Pope Leo XIV, the Church only reached a, “formal, absolute and universal condemnation” of slavery in the 19th century under Pope Leo XIII, following what he described as a prolonged period of inconsistency in Church teaching and practice.

During a 1985 visit to Africa, Pope John Paul II asked forgiveness from Africans for suffering caused by “men belonging to Christian nations”  involved in the slave trade. Pope Leo XIV’s predecessor, Pope Francis, condemned modern-day slavery and formally repudiated 15th-century papal documents used by colonial powers to justify actions including slavery.

According to the author of the 2022 history of American Black Catholic nuns, “Subversive Habits”, Shannen Dee Williams, the apology is a welcome development, “a monumental step toward the kind of essential truth-telling and reparation that many Catholics have prayed and worked to witness”.

 “The Catholic Church has never been an innocent bystander in the history of white supremacy”, argues Williams, pointing out that “Black Catholics have waited a long time to hear the Vatican speak honestly about the church’s leading roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery–and thus by extension the enduring systems of anti-Black racism in the world today”. According to Donna Doucette, a trustee with the Boston-based lay organisation Voice of the Faithful, she welcomed the Pope’s official Historic apology,

“I see, personally, great improvement and a willingness to stand up, point out where the church as an institution has been in error, and to apologise for those times”.

“Silence and not taking responsibility for our actions is the biggest way we can be complicit in the injustices in our world. I think our community will be very proud of Pope Leo XIV and prouder to be a Catholic in the light of these comments”, Susan Rutkowski, the Pastoral minister of Social Justice & Family Religious Education at the Paulist Centre.

The Dark History Of The Vatican’s Role in the Slave Trade

It is a historical fact that the Catholic Church played a foundational role in legitimising the Transatlantic slave trade through its decrees issued in the form of Papal Bulls.

The Papal Bulls

Papal bulls were official, highly formalised letters or decrees issued by the Pope (Head of the Vatican). They were called Papal Bulls, a name derived from the Latin word bulla, meaning heavy metal seal (usually lead), which traditionally was attached to authenticate the parchment, functioning just like more of a modern-day stamp. In short, Papal Bulls were and are the most authoritative declarations a Pope can and could make.

Papal Bulls Endorsing Slave Trade 1452- 1455

In the mid-15th century, several notable Papal Bulls legitimising the slave trade were issued. Pope Nicholas V, on January 8, 1455 (often historically linked to the earlier 1452 and 1454 decrees), did offer notable Papal Decrees that formed the foundation and moral backbone of European sovereigns to justify the slave trade and slavery. Such slave trade blessing decrees included: The Dum Diversas in 1452 and The Romanus Pontifex in 1455.

The Dum Diversas  of 1452

In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull, Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king, Afonso V, (often known as Afonso the Africano…. _for he successfully captured key Moroccan cities, including: Alcacer-Ceguer in 1458, Arzila in 1471 and Tangiers 1471),  and his successors the right, “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate and take all possessions — including land — of Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ”, anywhere. This particular Papal bull also gave the Portuguese permission, “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery”.

The Romanus Pontifex of 1455

This Papal decree formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimised the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas. Such Papal Decrees offered to King Afonso of Portugal by Pope Nicolas V were confirmed or renewed by other Popes, Pope Callixtus III in 1456. Pope Sixtus IV in 1481 and Pope Leo X in 1514…. all legitimising conquest and slavery.

According to the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of  All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church. Spanish kings received the rights for the Americas from the Catholic Church to conquer, exploit and enslave. In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally rescinded, abrogated or rejected the bulls themselves.

Sublimis Deus 1537

Of course, the Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that indigenous peoples shouldn’t be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and weren’t to be enslaved. But it was more of damage limitation or control and trying to take a good moral ground when the damage, which the Catholic church through its earlier Papal Decrees had caused through its legitimising of conquest and slavery, but it was too little, too late. These decrees (Dum Diversas & Roman Pontifex) issued by Pope Nicolas V to King Afonso V of Portugal were basically permission which granted the Portuguese power, full authority to “invade, capture, and subjugate “Saracens, pagans, and other enemies of Christ.

Papal Decrees & Destruction of African Empires & Enslavement of Their People

The simultaneous rise in Portuguese maritime power at the beginning of the 15th century, coupled together with Catholic church position on non- Europeans or non- believers or savages as they described them as communicated through Catholic Church Papal Bulls or decrees and the “doctrine of discovery”, such decrees expounded, no doubt, contributed to fuelling the Portuguese imperial conquest, violence and destruction of non- European people among them, African empires then. In all this, the Portuguese were inspired and morally justified by the Catholic Church’s Papal Bulls and Decrees. As a result, as historical records reveal, a number of the then African empires were attacked, disrupted, and conquered, which contributed to their collapse.

A number of such notable examples of African empires to face imperial conquest include, but are not limited to, the following: Kingdom of Mutapa (Mwenemutapa): An influential southern African empire in modern-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Kingdom of *Kongo*: A powerful central African state. Kingdom of Ndongo: Located in modern-day Angola. Swahili City-States: A network of prosperous independent coastal trading empires (including Kilwa and Mombasa ).The Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia): While the Portuguese temporarily aided the Christian Ethiopian empire against the Adal Sultanate in the 1540s, they later attacked the empire in an attempt to force Ethiopian Christians to submit to the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. The destruction of the then African empires and enslavement of people of those empires were directly linked to the moral justification given to European sovereign nations by the Catholic Church.

It was directly because of  Pope Nicolas V’s Papal Decrees, which allowed Portuguese and other Europeans to reduce other non- European populations to perpetual slavery. It was the  Vatican which had provided moral and legal backing for the colonisation, exploitation and enslavement of non- European people like Africans. Pope Leo XIV wrote in his encyclical; “Already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times to regulate and legitimize forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of infidels“. However, Pope Leo XIV pointed out that it was not possible to judge the morality of the decisions with today’s standards but, “yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery”.

Pope Leo XIV said that the church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, “even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognised”.

“This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached”, Pope Leo XIV reasoned.

Modern Day Digital Technological Revolution & New Forms Of Exploitation & Slavery

“To be monitored, ethically controlled or guarded lest it promotes new forms of slavery, exploitation and colonialism”.

Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch History Centre, Oxford University, argued that Pope Leo XIV needed to acknowledge and atone for the church’s complicity in historic slavery if he wanted to credibly,

“Speak to the current issues of technological enslavement”.

Pope Leo XIV hinted that, since the church apologises for its complicity in historic slavery, the church should also stand strong against contemporary slavery promoted by the digital technological revolution, more so Artificial Intelligence (AI), saying that,

 “If 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”.

No doubt, Africa and other Global South nations are exposed to new forms of slavery and exploitation due to the technological digital revolution. Pope Leo XIV called for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and urged its developers to work for the common good of humankind rather than for profiteering. And the Pope highlighted that the world needed to put a strong human face and ethics so as to stand guard against possible new forms of exploitation in the global economy linked to the digital technological revolution.

“Without this ethical and humanising reflection, the growing power of digital systems could lead us toward new atrocities that are no less shameful than those of the past that we now deplore”, Pope Leo XIV wrote.

Healing The Wound

Now that the Vatican has come up with a historic apology for the Catholic Church’s role in slavery, how can the wound (effects, legacy & enduring systems to date shaped by slavery legacy in African churches and communities) be healed? Possible actionable practices can go a long way in healing the damage of slavery and its legacy, and the Church as an institution can greatly assist by considering and implementing the following:

a) Challenging Colonial Theology

Colonial Theology refers to the use of religious *beliefs*, biblical *interpretations*, and church *systems*  to justify, facilitate, and sustain neo-colonialism and the exploitation of indigenous populations. Even after the attainment of political independence, the psychological and structural impacts of colonial theology continue to persist. In many African communities, churches still operate with colonial conservative doctrines that were strictly drilled for centuries by imperialism and colonialism.

b) Consciously Promoting Post Colonial Theology (PCT)

Post- Colonial Theology is a critical framework directly seeking to expose colonial biases within the church and seeks to critically examine how traditional Western, colonial theology is deeply rooted in historical colonial exploitation, as well as in some cases persisting to the present day. The aim,  restoration of indigenous sovereignty by seeking to revisit and revise beliefs, biblical texts, interpretations and religious teachings through the lens of local, indigenous, and marginalised voices rather than through the lens of the coloniser. Over and above, post- colonial theology calls for structural repair ( for the structural damage caused by colonial theology). It is all about acknowledging past violence (just like Pope Leo XIV did) and the affirmation of indigenous sovereignty.

c) Advancing Black Liberation Theology (BLT)

Black Liberation Theology (BLT) is a contextual theology whose central theme and focus is on liberating Black people. Championed by figures like James H Cone in the US, in his seminal text ” *Black Theology and Black Power* ” in 1969.  It emerged in the US, as African Americans grappled with existential challenges from historical and ongoing, racially motivated, dehumanising oppression. The main gist of Black theology is that in a society where people are oppressed because of their race, Christian theology must actively identify with the goals of the oppressed community. Black liberation theology seeks to reinterpret the Gospel through the lived experience of Black people. It argues for the dismantling of systemic racism and white supremacy. BLT draws heavily on historical Black faith traditions, tracing its roots to the spirituals, slave rebellions, and the teachings of figures like Nat Turner, David Walker, and Martin Luther King Jr.Black liberation theology also offers a framework through which people of African descent can reject the whitewashing of Christianity.

PCT & BLT As Critique Systems

Both Post Colonial Theology (PCT) & Black Liberation Theology (BLT) are critiques of systems of religious dominance. Both seek to challenge colonial, imperial, and racial theology, which was initially introduced to black people on the mainland and in the diaspora. A theology which was also meant to subjugate, exploit and bring the conquered (black people) into submission. The two systems of critique differ in their approaches. On one hand is PCT, which is broader,  and targets Eurocentric ideologies and the ongoing cultural and mental slavery, a legacy of Western imperialism, especially in the continent of Africa. On the other hand, BLT focuses primarily on racial subjugation and economic marginalisation. More appropriate for African descendants in the diaspora.

 d) Reparations

The Vatican needs to pay reparations for the Church’s historical role in colonisation and enslavement, which were historically legitimised by 15th-century Papal Bulls.

 e) Restitution

The Church should be actively involved in the restitution of stolen or unethically acquired cultural property and artefacts. The Vatican Museums should return dozens of indigenous artefacts as part and parcel of its apology and reconciliation efforts following historical roles in enslavement and colonialism.

f) Return Archival Material

The Vatican should return some plundered manuscripts, documents or texts in Rome and seek the return of such. For example, return of texts, including hymns and biblical commentaries, looted by Italian forces in Ethiopia. Of course, other observers and scholars point out that certain indigenous artefacts, manuscripts, text were given to the Vatican during the colonial era as “Gifts”, so they should not be returned. Such a narrative ought not to be followed because the reality is that many were taken under duress or as outright war loot.

 g) Truth & Reconciliation Commissions

Instead of relying on ad hoc investigative commissions, archival releases, and collaboration with regional truth and reconciliation bodies, the Church should have one centralised commission to comprehensively handle issues of the Church’s role in the conquest, exploitation and enslavement of African communities spearheaded by the Church itself.

 h) Educational Reforms

The Vatican schools, colleges, and universities worldwide and especially on African soil, should accurately confront and teach the history of slavery, slave trade, emphasising ” *church error* ” and the role played by the church in promoting such injustices and stepping on human dignity.

Conclusion

Pope Leo XIV’s breaking the silence on the role of the Vatican in general and, in particular, the role of past Popes in validating and legitimising slavery is not only historic but progressive. Silence and not taking responsibility for actions done is the greatest way an institution(Catholic Church)  can be complicit in injustice and the legacy of injustice in this world. The Catholic community should be proud of the historic apology offered by Pope Leo XIV but Africa would be even prouder of the Pope and Catholic Church if the Vatican would spearhead actionable practice to heal the wound caused by the Church in legitimising slavery like reparative justice, restitution, educational reforms and challenging colonial theology which wrongly misinterpreted part of the gospel to justify wars of conquest, subjugation of other people, exploitation and enslavement. Practical, actionable practices are a must; apologies alone are not sufficient.

F. Madondo (African Teacher) fortmada123@gmail.com