Pope leo xiv apologies for the church’s role in slavery

May 25th, in a message, Pope Leo XIV apologized for the church’s role in slavery. This news surprised people everywhere and especially the black catholic community that has been waiting for this for a long time. The church’s role begins in 1452 when Pope Nicholas V issued a decree, Dum Diversas, which permitted the Portuguese King to fight, conquer, and subjugate enemies who were seen as infidels, pagans, and muslims (Saracens). This decree gave the Spanish and Portuguese permission to enslave Africans and Indigenous peoples. Pope Nicholas’ decree was confirmed and even strengthen by the popes that would take his place until Pope Leo X in 1514.

Pope Leo XIII was the first to condemn slavery in 1888, the same year that Brazil abolished slavery. But, according to Pope Leo XIV, this is “a wound in the memory of Christians.”

It is not a surprise that the first American pope has a connection with slavery. It was first discovered when Louisiana genealogists such as Alex DaPaul Lee and Jari Honora, were searching for his roots after hearing his last name Prevost. Born in Chicago, Pope Leo is a descendent of the enslaved and the owners in Louisiana, his great-great-grandmother Celeste Lemelle was a free woman of color and the child of Louis Lemelle and Celeste Olimpie Grandpres who married in Opelousas in 1798. But such as many Creole families in Louisiana, they escaped the south to live in the north where they were able to pass for white in a country very much segregated.