It’s the clearest apology from a pope to date on this issue.
In his first encyclical _Magnifica Humanitas_, Pope Leo XIV said:
The Church took centuries to fully recognize slavery as incompatible with human dignity.
“For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon”.
Church authorities at times “responded to rulers by regulating and legitimising forms of subjugation, including the enslavement of non-Christians”.
He called it “a wound in Christian memory”.
He specifically linked past papal bulls and decrees to giving “religious cover to crimes that denied the image of God in millions of human beings”.
Pope Leo made the apology during a visit to Muxima, Angola — a shrine that was once a staging point for the transatlantic slave trade. He said the Church’s presence there was “interwoven with a system of capture, sale and deportation that we did not decisively oppose”.
How this differs from past popes?
John Paul II in 1985 asked Africans for forgiveness for the suffering caused by “men belonging to Christian nations” in the slave trade, but didn’t directly address the papacy’s role.
Francis condemned modern slavery and repudiated 15th-century papal documents used to justify colonialism and slavery, but framed it more broadly.
Leo XIV directly acknowledged the Holy See’s own role and responsibility.
Historians point to 15th-century papal bulls like _Dum Diversas_ and _Romanus Pontifex_ that gave Portuguese and Spanish monarchs religious justification to enslave non-Christians in Africa.
The Church later supported colonization in many parts of Africa.
Leo’s apology doesn’t mention reparations, but activists say it opens the door for that conversation.
Stay Tuned and click the follow button to follow African Unity for more updates 
.