The Church's Complicity in African Enslavement

The Catholic Church played a complex and deeply troubling role in the enslavement of Africans—one

that history often softens or skips altogether. While the Church preached love,

salvation, and human dignity. In the 15th century, Catholic popes issued official decrees

known as papal bulls. Documents like Dum Diversas in 1452 and Romanus Pontifex in 1455 granted

Christian kings, especially Portugal and Spain, the divine right to invade non-Christian

lands, seize property, and enslave African peoples. These were not rogue

opinions. They were Church-backed permissions that framed enslavement as God-approved.

Missionaries often traveled alongside slave traders. Before Africans were loaded onto