Pope Leo XIV has issued a historic apology for the Catholic Church’s role in legitimizing slavery, acknowledging for the first time that past popes helped authorize the enslavement of non-Christians during the colonial era.
The apology came in the pope’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), released Monday. While the document focuses primarily on the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, it also addresses the church’s long and controversial connection to slavery.
Past popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. However, Pope Leo’s statement goes further by acknowledging the direct role of the Holy See and previous popes in authorizing and legitimizing the enslavement of African and Indigenous peoples.
“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
The apology centers on a series of papal decrees issued during the 15th century. One of the most significant, Dum Diversas, issued by Pope Nicholas V in 1452, granted Portugal authority to conquer non-Christian lands and reduce their inhabitants to “perpetual slavery.” Another decree, Romanus Pontifex, helped establish what later became known as the Doctrine of Discovery, a legal and religious framework used to justify European colonization and the seizure of land throughout Africa and the Americas.
Leo acknowledged that the church was slow to condemn slavery, noting that it took centuries before Catholic leaders explicitly recognized that slavery was incompatible with Christian teaching. He described that history as a “wound in Christian memory.”
The apology has been welcomed by many Black Catholics, historians and activists who have long called on the Vatican to confront its role in slavery more directly.
But reparations advocates say the statement falls short of the accountability they have sought.
A key force behind the Vatican’s action was the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing, an international coalition of African and African-descended leaders formed in 2022 to advance reparations efforts worldwide. The group traveled to the Vatican that year and delivered a formal Reparations Presentment demanding recognition of the church’s role in slavery, a formal apology, rescission of papal decrees tied to enslavement, a papal commission on reparations, and a substantial financial commitment to repair the harm caused by centuries of slavery and colonialism.
The delegation argued that the church helped launch and legitimize what reparations advocates describe as the “chattelization” of African people through papal decrees that sanctioned conquest, enslavement and dispossession.
Leaders of the Global Circle say Pope Leo’s apology represents progress but does not fully meet their demands.
According to the organization, the encyclical includes three key elements they sought: recognition of the church’s role, an apology and an official papal document addressing slavery. However, they note that the Vatican has not committed to reparations, has not fully rescinded the papal decrees connected to enslavement and has not accepted broader responsibility for repairing the lasting damage caused by the slave trade.
“The work is not finished,” the organization said in a statement. “The struggle now moves forward toward full recognition, full apology and full repair.”
Pope Leo, the first American-born pope, has a family history that includes both enslaved people and slaveholders, according to genealogical research cited in news reports. His apology marks one of the most significant acknowledgments by a pope of the Vatican’s role in the history of slavery and is likely to intensify global conversations about reparations and historical accountability.