The Roman Catholic Church and Slavery
Throughout history, the Catholic Church found
itself among cultures practicing slavery and had
to determine how to deal with the institution of
slavery. An early example is St. Paul’s Epistle to
Philemon. St. Paul appears to tolerate slavery, but
he also warned slave masters that they too have a
Master in Heaven who would judge them (Col.
4:1). In certain historical periods, due to its
weakness in political affairs, the Church could not
stop every evil practice. Many Catholics prior to
the 19th century owned slaves, including several
popes. Two Catholic nations, Spain and Portugal,
were heavily involved in the slave trade and the
use of slaves in their colonial possession.
There are different forms of slavery. Even though
repugnant to our modern sensitivity, servitude is
not always unjust, such as penal servitude for
convicted criminals or servitude freely chosen for
personal financial reasons. These forms are called just-title servitude. During Biblical times, a
man could voluntarily sell himself into slavery in order to pay off his debts (Deut. 15:12-18).
But such slaves were to be freed on the seventh year or the Jubilee year (Lev. 25:54). The
Church tolerated just-title servitude for a time because it is not wrong in itself, though it can be
seriously abused. The Popes did, however, oppose racial slavery.
Source: Slavery and the Catholic Church at http://users.binary.net/polycarp/slave.html
In 1537, Pope Paul III issued a Bull or proclamation against slavery, entitled Sublimis Deus:
“The exalted God loved the human race so much that He created man in such a condition that
he was not only a sharer in good as are other creatures, but also that he would be able to
reach and see face to face the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good... Seeing this and
envying it, the enemy of the human race, who always opposes all good men so that the race
may perish, has thought up a way, unheard of before now, by which he might impede the
saving word of God from being preached to the nations. He (Satan) has stirred up some of his
allies who, desiring to satisfy their own avarice, are presuming to assert far and wide that the
Indians...be reduced to our service like brute animals, under the pretext that they are lacking
the Catholic faith. And they reduce them to slavery, treating them with afflictions they would
scarcely use with brute animals... by our Apostolic Authority decree and declare by these
present letters that the same Indians and all other peoples - even though they are outside the
faith - ...should not be deprived of their liberty... Rather they are to be able to use and enjoy
this liberty and this ownership of property freely and licitly, and are not to be reduced to
slavery...”
Source: Father Joel S. Panzer, The Popes and Slavery (Alba House, 1996), pp. 79-80
In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI issued a Bull, entitled In Supremo. Its main focus was against slave
trading, but it also clearly condemned racial slavery:
“We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every
condition that no one in the future dare bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce
to slavery Indians, Blacks or other such peoples.”
Source: Father Joel S. Panzer, The Popes and Slavery
(Alba House, 1996), p. 101
Unfortunately a few American bishops misinterpreted
this Bull as condemning only the slave trade and not
slavery itself. Bishop John England of Charleston actually
wrote several letters to the Secretary of State under
President Van Buren explaining that the Pope, within In
Supremo, did not condemn slavery but only the slave
trade (Ibid., pp. 67-68).
Source: Father Joel S. Panzer, The Popes and Slavery
(Alba House, 1996), pp. 67-68
Catholics constituted approximately 2% of the southern
white population. They never controlled more than
100,000 of the four million slaves in the South. There was
widespread prejudice against Catholics and it was not
until the 1820s that they finally gained full citizenship rights in Southern states, including the
right to vote.
Southern Catholics lived on the periphery of southern society outside of a few urban areas
such as Charleston and New Orleans. Those cities were the only places in the South where
Catholics exerted a strong presence. "Catholicism had an image problem in the nineteenth
century. It was a religion of foreigners who professed loyalty to a foreign power." The "foreign
power" was the Vatican in the minds of many white Southerners.
Catholics were a beleaguered minority in a hostile Protestant environment. Catholic slave
owners were pressured to conform with established practices of Southern society toward
slaves. Catholic owners of slaves were taught by the Catholic Church that all people were
equal in the eyes of God, but local traditions and Southern governments placed Negroes in the
category of slaves who lacked human rights.
Catholic clergy in the South recognized the dilemma confronting their parishioners. On the
one hand, society insisted upon wielding absolute power over slaves, but on the other hand,
priests had to continually remind Catholics that slaves were people in the eyes of God who
were entitled to the sacraments of the Catholic Church. Brother Joseph Mobberly, a prominent
Jesuit, laid down basic principles for Catholic slave owners to which many Catholics adhered:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Provide slaves proper nourishment and housing.
Allow slaves to marry and live together. Do not separate married couples.
Provide religious instruction for slaves.
Avoid using cruel methods of punishment
The Catholic history of several Southern states produced significant contrasts between the
institution of slavery in those states and that of other Southern states. Florida, Louisiana, and
Texas had once belonged to Catholic nations and thus possessed fairly large populations of
Catholics. Florida, for example, had laws dating from the eighteenth century that said that
while slaves had to obey their masters, they had legal rights to attend church, to marry within
the church, and to protest against harsh treatment by their owners. After Florida was taken
over by the United States in the nineteenth century, these laws were gradually voided to make
Florida coincide with prevailing Southern practices. Louisiana was part of France for many
years and throughout the eighteenth century was under Le Code Noir, originally promulgated
in 1724. According to its provisions:
1. Slaves were to be baptized as Catholics and entitled to attend church services, and be
freed from work on Holy days.
2. Once granted permission to marry, slaves were legally a family and could not be
separated.
3. Slaves were entitled to adequate food, clothing and shelter.
Source: Excerpted from Fred Stopsky, Catholicism and Slavery (Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights, 1999).
1. How did the Catholic Church deal with the issue of slavery?
2. What role did they play in its implementation and or demise?