Bishop of Udupi Catholic Diocese Leslie Clifford DSouza meeting Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday (May 25, 2026) for the role the Holy See itself played in legitimising slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican’s record a “wound in Christian memory.”

Past Popes have apologised for Christians’ involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But no Pope has ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologised for, the role that past popes themselves played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.”

History’s first U.S.-born Pope, whose family history includes both enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the apology in his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), which was released Monday (May 25).

The sweeping manifesto is about safeguarding humanity in an era of increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. Pope Leo raised the trans-Atlantic slave trade in relation to what he called the new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fuelling, such as the unregulated labour required to procure rare minerals needed for AI chips.

In doing so, Pope Leo responded to decades of calls by Black American Catholics, activists and scholars for the Holy See to atone for its own role in the colonial-era trade in human beings.

“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Pope Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

Centuries of legitimising slavery for European colonisers

The Vatican has insisted that it always upheld the dignity of all human beings as children of God. But a series of 15th-Century directives from the Vatican authorized Portuguese sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.

In 1452, for example, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, which gave the Portuguese king and his successors the right “to invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” and take all possessions — including land — of “Saracens, and pagans, and other infidels, and enemies of the name of Christ” anywhere.

The bull also gave the Portuguese permission “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” That bull and another issued three years later, Romanus Pontifex, formed the basis of the Doctrine of Discovery, the theory that legitimised the colonial-era seizure of land in Africa and the Americas.

Pope Nicholas V’s permissions to the Portuguese were confirmed or renewed by Pope Callixtus III in 1456, Pope Sixtus IV in 1481, and Pope Leo X in 1514, according to the Rev. Christopher J. Kellerman, a Jesuit priest and author of “All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church.” Spanish kings received the rights for the Americas.

In 2023, the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, but it never formally rescinded, abrogated or rejected the bulls themselves. The Vatican insists that a later bull, Sublimis Deus in 1537, reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples shouldn’t be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, and weren’t to be enslaved.

Holy See late to condemn slavery, Pope Leo says

In his encyclical, Pope Leo recalled that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was the first pope to explicitly condemn slavery in 1888, though that was long after many countries had already abolished it. Before that, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, even church institutions had slaves.

In acknowledging the Holy See’s own role and the 15th-Century papal bulls, Pope Leo wrote in his encyclical: “Already in the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to the requests of sovereigns, intervened several times to regulate and legitimise forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, including the enslavement of infidels.’” Pope Leo said that it wasn’t possible to judge the morality of the decisions with today’s standards.

“Yet neither can we deny or diminish the delay with which both society and the church came to denounce the scourge of slavery,” he said.

The Pope said that the church has long affirmed the dignity of every human being as the basis of its doctrine, “even if it took eighteen centuries for its full incompatibility with slavery to be explicitly recognised.” “This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached,” he said.

Pope Leo said that the church today must firmly condemn all forms of trafficking related to the digital technological revolution “if we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future for having failed to respect the treasure of human dignity that is required by our faith.”

Leo’s own family history and past apologies

During his 1985 visit to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked forgiveness of Africans for the slave trade on behalf of Christians who participated in it, but not for the popes’ own role in it. In a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, which was the largest slave-trading centre in West Africa, he denounced the injustice of slavery and called it a “tragedy of a civilisation that called itself Christian.” According to genealogical research published by Henry Louis Gates Jr., 17 of Pope Leo’s American ancestors were Black, listed in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole, or a free person of colour. His family tree includes slaveholders and enslaved people, Gates wrote in The New York Times.

During a visit to Angola last month, Pope Leo prayed at a Catholic shrine located at the site of an important hub of the African slave trade during Portugal’s colonial rule. While at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, Pope Leo recalled the “sorrow and great suffering” Angolans endured for centuries, but he didn’t refer specifically to slavery.

Published – May 25, 2026 10:06 pm IST

Washington:

The war of words between US Border Czar Tom Homan and Pope Francis has escalated, with Homan firing back at the Vatican’s leader over his criticism of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies. In a televised interview, Homan accused Pope Francis of hypocrisy, pointing to the Vatican’s own robust security measures, including a wall around the Vatican.

“They have a wall around the Vatican,” Homan said. “If you illegally enter the Vatican, the crime is serious. You’ll be charged with a serious crime and jailed. So he can protect the Vatican where he lives. He can build a wall where he lives, but the American people are not allowed that.”

Homan also called on Pope Francis to focus on addressing issues within the Catholic Church, saying “The Pope ought to stick to the Catholic Church and fix that. That’s a mess.”

NEW: Border Czar Tom Homan responds to Catholic outcry over Trump’s deportation operation, calls out the Pope for living behind massive 30 foot walls.

Homan told the Pope to fix the Catholic church before he starts criticizing the United States.

“They have a wall around the… pic.twitter.com/YTRoZ7DIH5

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 25, 2025

Pope Francis has been a vocal advocate for migrant rights, criticising restrictive immigration policies. Nearly a decade after calling Trump “not Christian” for his plans to build a US-Mexico border wall, the pontiff reiterated his stance during an appearance on the Italian talk show Che Tempo Che Fa.

“If true, this will be a disgrace,” Francis said of Trump’s deportation pledges. “It makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill. This won’t do! This is not the way to solve things. That’s not how things are resolved.”

The Pope’s comments came as the Trump administration has intensified deportation operations, with immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) arresting 538 people on Thursday and 593 on Friday, some of whom were flown out of the country on military planes. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the efforts as part of the administration’s “largest deportation operation in history,” aligning with Trump’s campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration.

The exchange between Homan and Pope Francis highlights the deep divisions over immigration policy in the United States. As the Trump administration continues to enforce stricter immigration rules, critics argue that the policies are inhumane and go against American values. Supporters, on the other hand, argue that the policies are necessary to maintain national security and enforce the rule of law.
 

Vatican City:

Pope Francis warned Wednesday against a “chauvinistic mentality” in the Catholic Church, as he promoted a nun to head the executive administration of the tiny Vatican City state.

“People often complain that there are not enough nuns in roles of responsibility, in the diocese, in the (Roman) Curia and the universities. It’s true,” the 88-year-old pontiff said.

“We must overcome a clerical and chauvinistic mentality.”

He highlighted the promotion of Sister Raffaella Petrini, who will take over as president of the governorate of the Vatican City state in March. She is currently secretary general.

“Thank God, nuns are ahead and know how to do things better than men,” Francis told a meeting of the Hilton Foundation, a charitable organisation which supports education for nuns.

He said not enough money had been invested in nuns’ education, “because it is thought that nuns, and women, are second class.”

Their work “requires trained and competent people”, Francis said, adding: “The mission of nuns is to serve the least fortunate, and not to be someone’s servants.”

Campaigners have in the past condemned as “modern slavery” the treatment of nuns employed in the Vatican and elsewhere, who work as unpaid cooks and cleaners in the homes of priests, bishops or cardinals.

Francis earlier this month appointed Sister Simona Brambilla to lead the Vatican’s office that oversees the world’s Catholic religious orders and congregations.

Francis has been naming women to more elevated positions within the Holy See since becoming head of the world’s almost 1.4 billion Catholics in 2013, but progress is slow.

The percentage of women working in the Holy See and Vatican City has risen from around 19 percent in 2013 to 23.4 percent in 2023, according to data published by Vatican News.

However, women still cannot receive Holy Orders, and repeated calls by some for women to be permitted to become priests have come to nothing.

Some accuse the Argentine pontiff of having outdated views of the roles women can do.

“Don’t forget that since the Garden of Eden they have been in charge,” he said Wednesday in reference to the Biblical story of how Adam and Eve were thrown out of paradise after she defied God’s order not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and persuaded Adam to eat it too.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Rome:

Young homosexual men can train to become Catholic priests in Italy but not if they “support the so-called gay culture”, according to new Church guidelines approved by the Vatican.

While stressing the need for celibacy, the guidelines from the Italian Bishops’ Conference — posted online on Thursday — open the door for gay men to attend seminaries, or divinity schools that train young men to become priests.

But they came with a caveat — that those who flaunt their homosexuality should be barred. 

A section of the 68-page guidelines was specifically directed at “persons with homosexual tendencies who approach seminaries, or who discover such a situation during their training”.

“The Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary and to Holy Orders those who practise homosexuality, present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture,” read the document.

The goal of training priests-to-be is “the ability to accept as a gift, to freely choose and live chastity in celibacy”.

The new guidelines have been approved by the Vatican, the bishops’ conference said in an accompanying statement.

Pope Francis, 88, has throughout his papacy encouraged a more inclusive Church, including for LGBTQ Catholics, even though official church doctrine still states that same-sex acts are “intrinsically disordered”.

In 2013, just weeks after taking office, Francis famously said “if someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?”

In June, however, the pope used a vulgar gay slur in a closed-door meeting with the Italian bishops, according to two Italian newspapers, setting off a minor firestorm. 

The pope had expressed his opposition to gay men entering seminaries, saying there was already too much “frociaggine” in the schools — using an offensive Roman term that translated as “faggotry”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Vatican City:

Pope Francis on Monday named the first woman to lead a major Vatican department, appointing an Italian sister to take charge of the office that oversees the world’s Catholic religious orders.

Sister Simona Brambilla, 59, will lead the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. She replaces Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, a Brazilian prelate who had led the office since 2011.

Francis has elevated women to leadership roles at the Vatican throughout his 11-year papacy, naming a range of women to second-in-command positions at various offices.

But he had not yet appointed a woman to lead one of the offices of the Holy See, the internationally recognised sovereign entity that oversees the global Catholic Church.

Brambilla was named as “prefect” of the Vatican office. Francis also named Spanish Cardinal Angel Fernández Artime as “pro-prefect” of the department.

The Vatican press office said Brambilla would be leading the department, but did not immediately offer details on how the two officials would split duties.

Among other appointments, Francis has previously named women to number two positions in the Vatican’s development office, its family life office, and its press office.

He also appointed Barbara Jatta as the first woman to lead the Vatican Museums in 2016.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Vatican City:

Pope Francis will mark Christmas Eve on Tuesday with a special ceremony launching Jubilee 2025, a year of Catholic celebrations set to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome.

The 88-year-old, who has been suffering from a cold in recent days, will at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) open the “Holy Door” of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, in front of 30,000 people and a live TV audience around the world.

Over the next 12 months, pilgrims will pass through the large and imposing bronze door, which is normally closed, by tradition benefiting from a “plenary indulgence”, a type of forgiveness for their sins.

The Argentine pontiff will then preside over the Christmas Eve mass in St Peter’s, before delivering his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world), at midday on Wednesday.

Ahead of a busy week, the pontiff missed his usual Angelus prayer in St Peter’s Square on Sunday because of a cold, instead delivering it online from his home in the Vatican.

On Christmas Day, Francis is expected to repeat his calls for peace in a world riven by conflict, particularly in the Middle East.

He drew an angry response from Israel at the weekend for condemning the “cruelty” of Israel’s strikes in Gaza that killed children.

Some 700 security officers are being deployed around the Vatican and Rome for the Jubilee celebrations, with measures further tightened following Friday’s car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Germany.

‘Little miracle’

Organised by the Church every 25 years, the Jubilee is intended as a period of reflection and penance for Catholics, and is marked by a long list of cultural and religious events, from masses to exhibitions, conferences and concerts.

Much of Rome has been given a facelift in preparation, with monuments such as the Trevi Fountain and the Ponte Sant’Angelo cleaned up and roads redesigned to improve the flow of traffic.

Many residents have questioned how the Eternal City — where key sites are already overcrowded and public transport is unreliable — will cope with millions more visitors next year.

Key Jubilee projects were only finished in the last few days after months of works that turned much of the city into a building site.

Inaugurating a new road tunnel at Piazza Pia next to the Vatican on Monday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it had taken a “little civil miracle” to get the project finished in time.

Over the course of the next few days, Holy Doors will be opened in Rome’s three major basilicas and in Catholic churches around the world.

On Thursday, Pope Francis will open a Holy Door at Rebibbia prison in Rome and preside over a mass in a show of support for the inmates.

LGBTQ faithful

While primarily aimed at the world’s almost 1.4 billion Catholics, the Jubilee aims to also reach a wider audience.

And traditions have evolved since the first such event back in 1300, launched by Pope Boniface VIII.

This year, the Vatican has provided pilgrims with online registration and multilingual phone apps to navigate events.

Jubilee 2025 also has a mascot named Luce (meaning Light in Latin) inspired by Japanese anime cartoons — a choice that drew some criticism from traditionalists, but which is intended to target the younger generation.

With the motto “Pilgrims of Hope”, the event will see groups from around the world come to Rome throughout 2025, from sports and business figures to migrants, artists and young people.

Among the groups registered on the official site is Italian LGBTQ group La Tenda di Gionata, reflecting the pope’s call for the Church to be open to all.

As well as the regular Jubilees every 25 years, the Church has organised extraordinary Jubilees, the most recent in 2016. The next is in 2033 to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)