Was the Church wrong on slavery for 1700 years?

[dcdurel]

I won’t say the Church was “wrong” on slavery for 1700 years but the Church, depending on so-called “natural law” would never have fostered an abolition movement. If the Reformation hadn’t happened we might still have slavery.

Not true. The Popes wrote nine encyclicals condeming slavery before the civil war and absolutely forbid the ownership of slaves. The American Catholics back then, as today, felt their opinions are more important than what the Popes taught, and they rejected the teaching of the Popes. Thus, while the Church always taught the truth, the members of the Church in this country failed miserably in their faith in Jesus when He said to listen to His Church.
See exactly what the Popes taught:
users.binary.net/polycarp/slave.html

When will we learn that when the Popes teach for the whole Church, they are giving us the teaching of Jesus Christ. To reject the universal teachings of the Popes is to reject the teachings of Jesus Christ

 

[havemercy]

The following was taught (with no sources provided) in my history class this week, and I’d like to know if any of it is valid:

• Some of the first slaves were given to the Pope (which one and what date wasn’t specified), and he freely accepted the offer.
• The Jesuits were “big slavers”.

Is there any truth to these claims?

 

[jc-servant]

1st slaves meaning ever in history or 1st slaves from the African slave trade sold by Europeans? Sounds like a fishy, Catholic bashing claim to me to say that the 1st slaves were given to the Pope. There were “slaves” mentioned in the Bible, but slaves became slaves in different ways with different conditions than the much later African slave trade.

I don’t know about the Jesuits, but some religious orders in the US did allow young Southern women to bring “personal slaves” with them to the convent. (How that fit in with a vow of poverty I cannot imagine.) There was a formal apology by a number of orders with mother houses in Kentucky several years ago for having allowed this practice before the Civil War. It stuck in my mind because some of them were located in Nelson county, KY which is where my father’s family is from.

 

[havemercy]

1st slaves meaning ever in history or 1st slaves from the African slave trade sold by Europeans? Sounds like a fishy, Catholic bashing claim to me to say that the 1st slaves were given to the Pope. There were “slaves” mentioned in the Bible, but slaves became slaves in different ways with different conditions than the much later African slave trade.

The first slaves from the African slave trade sold by Europeans.

I don’t know about the Jesuits, but some religious orders in the US did allow young Southern women to bring “personal slaves” with them to the convent. (How that fit in with a vow of poverty I cannot imagine.) There was a formal apology by a number of orders with mother houses in Kentucky several years ago for having allowed this practice before the Civil War. It stuck in my mind because some of them were located in Nelson county, KY which is where my father’s family is from.

I’ll be asking for my teachers sources in this regard.