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Slavery and the Church

Lou Giorgetti



Saint Peter Claver
Scott 899 (1992)


Statue of Saint Peter Claver
Altar at Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, Cartagena, Columbia
(Photo from the collection of Marvin Lanahan, used with permission)

In yesterday's Daily Email, we celebrated the feast day of Saint Peter Claver, who worked diligently to maintain the dignity of black African slaves transported to the New World, specifically to the port at Cartagena, Columbia. The work of this saint serves as a good place to review the role of the Church in opposing slavery over the years.

Although we tend to focus on the Black African slave trade to the New World, which started in the late 15th century, the roots of slavery go back at least 9000 years, with scholars tracing the practice back to at least 6800 BC in Mesopotamia (although slavery probably existed prior to this reference point).

The efforts of Saint Peter Claver in Cartagena in the early 1600’s provide a definitive and direct example of Church efforts to combat slavery and the indignity of man against his fellow man. However, prior to his work, there are documented examples of the Church inserting itself into the issue of slavery and making statements condemning the practice. The author Paul Kengor states:
"Father Claver’s…ministry to Black slaves is plainly remarkable and perhaps unparalleled among anyone in the history of the Catholic Church and perhaps Christianity as a whole. His personal motto was 'Peter Claver, slave of the Negroes for ever'."
It is important to put his actions into historical context: Claver had the backing of the Church in his efforts. Well before 1620, and long before Saint Peter Claver lent tangible actions to combat the atrocities, papal bulls and encyclicals addressed the sin of slavery. Three important documents include:

  • Sicut Dudum. On January 13, 1435, Pope Eugene IV issued Sicut Dudum, titled Against the Enslaving of Black Natives From the Canary Islands, which followed a December, 1434 statement, Creator Omnium. In Sicut Dudum, Pope Eugene states the perpetrators:
    "have subjected some of the inhabitants of said islands to perpetual slavery, sold them to other persons, and committed other various illicit and evil deeds against them…thus offending the majesty of God, putting their souls in danger, and causing no little harm to the Christian religion."


    Pope Paul III
    Scott 121 (1946)

  • Sublimus Deus. On June 2, 1537, Pope Paul III issued Sublimis Deus, (On the Enslavement and Evangelization of Indians.). Written almost a century prior to English colonization of North America, Pope Paul III viewed the enslavement of Indians as no less than the work of Satan. The Bull states:
    "We define and declare by these Our letters [that] said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved."
  • Cum Sicuti. On April 18, 1591, Pope Gregory XIV directed to the bishop of Manila in the Philippines to order Spanish Christians in the Philippines to ‘cease and desist’ from using force against the Native population and to not enslave them.

    Some critics have stated that the Church was late in its denunciation of slavery, but the documents above, condemning the practice, both predate and run concurrent to the institution of the American slave trade. As the author Paul Kengor emphatically states:
    "[as] for Black-transatlantic slavery, the Church zeroed in on it immediately."
    These three Bulls are only the first of many such pronouncements by the Church, continuing to the present day. Today, the term slavery is euphemistically called ‘human trafficking’ but the sin remains the same. The late Pope Francis addressed the topic in the encyclicals 'Laudato Si', 'Evangelii Gaudium', and 'Fratelli Tutti'. On numerous other occasions, he focused on the desire to eradicate slavery/human trafficking, including his April 2015 plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences addressing human slavery in the 21st century.

    The reader is directed to the National Catholic Register article by Paul Kengor, which can be accessed by clicking on the hyperlink in the references. This article served as the primary reference for today's presentation. Kengor opened his article by calling attention to the 2023 film The Sound of Freedom, which was an unexpected blockbuster focused on human trafficking. The film has brought attention to this abhorrent practice, and hopefully will lead to efforts towards its eradication. But as he reminds us, the Church as been fighting the fight as long as any other institution. He closes his piece with the statement:
    "overall, the institution as a whole has been hard to surpass. There is no other institution that so consistently opposed slavery for so long. And it still does."

    REFERENCES:
  • Kengor, Paul, National Catholic Register, August 25, 2023, Since Before the Witness of St. Peter Claver to Today, the Catholic Church Has a Long, and Often Overlooked, History Opposing Slavery
  • Kengor, Paul, The Worst of Indignities: The Catholic Church on Slavery, Emmaus Road Publishing, July 2023
  • Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search