VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV issued a historic apology Monday for the Holy See’s own role in legitimizing slavery and its centuries-long failure to condemn the practice, describing the Vatican’s record as a “wound in Christian memory.”
The apology, delivered in the pontiff’s first encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), directly addressed papal bulls that for centuries gave European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave non-Christians. While previous popes had apologized for Christian involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, none had publicly acknowledged the actions of past popes in authorizing the enslavement of “infidels.”
Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, has personal ties to both sides of the history: his family background includes both enslaved people and slave owners. The Vatican released the encyclical on Monday.
In the same document, Leo called for robust regulation of artificial intelligence, issuing a sweeping manifesto on safeguarding humankind that addresses the technology’s impact on everything from work to war. The pontiff urged that AI’s development serve the common good rather than corporate profit.