There is a difference between
Christians who are sinners and
Catholicism that is the church that Christ, who was perfect, established that has Christians as members
- in distant but partial communion - ordinary Christians
- in a closer but still imperfect communion due to sin - ordinary Catholics
- in a closeness that approaches perfection while on earth - Saints
- perfect - Mary and Christ
Slavery predated Christianity. It can be traced back to the Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC) Around the year 1500, slavery had virtually died out in Western Europe, but was a normal phenomenon practically everywhere else. This is because of such as this: “In 1102 a national ecclesiastical council, held at Westminster, under Archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Anselm, prohibited the slave trade. They decreed: ‘Let no one hereafter presume to engage in that nefarious trade in which hitherto in England men were usually sold like brute animals.” So
white slavery of
whites ended.
It was also clear that slavery was wrong in general. Christ told St. Bridget of Sweden that so-called Christians who didn’t set slaves free would be heavily punished. She was canonized in the year 1391 by Pope Boniface IX, which was confirmed by the Council of Constance in 1415. Because of new discussions about her works, the Council of Basel confirmed the orthodoxy of the revelations in 1436.
After slavery ended among whites in Europe for Christianity, they still enslaved blacks. They were much more harsh to blacks than they formerly where to whites because they were racist and they were more harsh to blacks than blacks where to blacks (except in Muslim countries such as Sudan). They were so much more powerful than other regions of the world, especially Africa, that it was totally one-sided. John Newton was a slavetrader that realized at the point of severe illness, nearing death, that if God was just, he would punish him. So he wrote “Amazing Grace” and supported abolition, convinced his friend William Wilberforce to not become a Pastor and instead work on the abolitionist movement. Wilberforce ended the slave trade throughout the British Empire because of his faith. Also Catholic thinkers such as Bartolomé de las Casas gave reasons in Latin America why slavery was wrong from a slave’s point of view that helped the Church theologians and rulers to realize how wrong it was, i.e. Valladolid debate.
Some Popes tried to limit abuses of slavery through decrees. At least one Pope is cited as supporting slavery of infidels. These weren’t declared infalliable. Often there were differences between Popes and Catholic regions, such as America. Augustine Tolton was a former slave who wanted to become a priest, but no Catholic seminary in the United States would admit him due to being black so a seminary in Rome admitted him, and he trained in Rome.
Slavery ended in most countries after it ended in the West.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_slavery_timeline
Some forms of slavery, prostitution, still go on. Google devoted money to ending slavery in 2011.
cnn.com/2011/12/14/us/google-anti-slavery-grant/index.html
So, yes, Christians enslaved blacks, but then most people who call themselves Christians also have sex outside of marriage and Gingrich has been married 3 times. It is similar to the Protestant Reformation. The scandals of the Church led people to leave the Church, but they also lead to the Council of Trent where the canon of the Bible was determined for the first time. So the scandal of racial slavery among Christians caused slavery to reach such horrors that the Church determined that slavery was wrong. Were there racists in the Church? Yes. Are there still racists in the Church? Yes. Are ALL people in the Church racist or is Catholicism racist because some people are racist, no.
