CHURCH AND SLAVERY
Years ago, the Institute of Practical Philosophy, prompted by a
couple of statements made by the then rector of the Catholic University, Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, and by the director of the journal
Criterio, José María Poirier, published the declaration “On Slavery,” in
defense of historical truth and of the honor of the Church.
Cardinal Fernández, at the time, said: “The Church, some
centuries ago, peacefully accepted slavery and changed its mind
because there was an evolution in doctrine,” while the journalist
maintained that “The Church coexisted for centuries with the scandal of
slavery.”
But today something far more distressing is happening: this is shared
by Pope Leo XIV in his first encyclical, when he writes:
we cannot deny or minimize the delay with which the Church and
society condemned the scourge of slavery… This is
a wound in the Christian memory that is not foreign to us… in
the name of the Church, I sincerely ask forgiveness.”
Our tradition begins with Saint Paul, who in his
Epistle to the Galatians writes that “in Christ… there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave
nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in
Christ Jesus” (3, 27/28). But on this subject, the Apostle has an explicit text: the
epistle to his friend Philemon, to whom he says: “although I have full
freedom in Christ to command you what is right, I prefer to appeal to your
charity… I appeal to you for my son, whom I begot in chains, for
Onesimus, whom I send back to you… welcome him as you would me. If he owes you anything,
charge it to my account; I, Paul, will repay it.” The Apostle to the Gentiles had baptized in the shared prison,
though for different reasons, with Onesimus, slave of
Philemon.
Saint Paul takes the issue out of the legal sphere and places it in the
realm of charity, and as the Protestant theologian
Emil Brunner acutely points out, “the institution of slavery dissolves
from within outward… Christians had something far more
important to do than protest against something they could not
change and an open struggle against that injustice would not have
succeeded in abolishing it but would have provoked its increase” (Justice,
National Autonomous University of Mexico, pp. 134/135)
This tradition has a milestone in modern times with
Pope Leo XIII, who frames the issue perfectly and who, in
1890, published the encyclical “Catholicae Ecclesiae,” in which he writes:
“The Catholic Church, which welcomes all men with maternal
love, from its origins, …has had no other desire than the
abolition and total elimination of slavery, which subjected so many
mortals to a cruel yoke. Indeed, as the faithful guardian of the doctrine of
its Founder… the Church took up the forgotten cause of the slaves and
was the unwavering guarantor of freedom, although, as circumstances
and the times required, it pursued its purpose in a
gradual and moderate manner. That is, it proceeded with prudence and
discretion, constantly requesting what it desired in the name of
religion, justice, and humanity.”
Excellent is the text of Leo XIII, which explains and endorses the trajectory of the
Church and which is the culmination of other documents that condemned
slavery: “Creator omnium” of Eugene IV
(1434). “Sublimis Deus” of Paul III (1537). “Commissum nobis” of
Urban VIII (1639). “In supremo” of Gregory XVI (1839).
Centuries of pontifical documents that refute “the delay”
in condemning something abominable and that align with the Pauline tradition.
There were timely interventions, such as that of Pius II in 1462,
which describes it as a “great crime,” and of Paul III who, in 1537,
excommunicates those who reduced the Indians to slavery.
In 1218, Saint Peter Nolasco founded the Order of Mercy, to
rescue those who were slaves or captives of the Muslims,
sometimes exchanging the friars themselves, their own lives for those of
the captives.
For all this, we have legitimate pride, which is in no way
arrogance, for the attitude of our Church and its actions throughout
history, like that of a priest friend, an Argentine missionary,
who today frees Christian slaves through their purchase in the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Buenos Aires, June 2, 2026.
Bernardino Montejano