Pope Leo XIV apologises for Vatican’s historical role in legitimising slavery

Pope Leo XIV. PIC/AFP

Pope Leo XIV made history on Monday, apologising for the role that the Holy See played in legitimising slavery, and for its failure to speak out against it for centuries, AP reported.

Pope Leo XIV called the Vatican's record a "wound in Christian memory". Past popes have apologised for the involvement of Christians in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

But none ever publicly acknowledged the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave "infidels".

The first US-born pope, whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas" (Magnificent Humanity), on Monday.

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