Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, has garnered a great deal of attention in its focus on AI and his message that the world must use caution and thoughtful consideration on how AI will impact humanity. Included among the topics relating to the use of AI are concern for exploited and vulnerable workers, and warnings about AI usage to support human trafficking, both as forms of slavery. Pope Leo states, “Failing to respond firmly, or tolerating these practices in any way, is in some way to become complicit in today’s sins, which are akin to those of the past when slavery was being concealed and justified.”
It is at this point in the encyclical that Pope Leo recalls the Church’s history with slavery, and its condoning and participating in the practice of the enslavement of human beings in earlier centuries. While previous pontiffs have condemned legalized systems of slavery, Pope Leo does something more. Pope Leo apologizes for the Church’s condoning of slavery in the past. “This constitutes a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached. 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. For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
As an American Catholic, I have been proud to see Pope Leo’s moral voice, courage, and leadership, but this statement on the Church’s complicity with slavery will be an indelible one for me as a Black Catholic. I am particularly proud of the fact that our first American-born pontiff made such a powerful statement about slavery. Pope Leo is someone who not only knows about the cruel and dark history of slavery in this country, but he grew up during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s as our nation witnessed the intense challenges waged to overcome the political and social vestiges of oppression stemming from slavery, and that sadly remain to this day.
On the fourth of July, we will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of Declaration of Independence from British rule on July 4, 1776. Since its founding, our nation has been described as “exceptional” and as “a city on the hill.” It is indeed extraordinary, and yet as wonderful as this nation is, it has struggled, stumbled and fallen short over the past 250 years in living up to the “self-evident” truths the founding fathers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This was most notably clear at its inception in the exclusion of its enslaved people from the freedom and equality that it claimed for the newly formed 13 states. It was not until 1865 with congressional passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that slavery was abolished in the United States, bringing an end to the contradiction of legalized enslavement and the declaration by the founding fathers that God created all people equal in rights to enjoy dignity in life, liberty and in the pursuit of happiness as human beings. The freedom for Black Americans would be delayed for almost 90 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Accordingly, our nation has a second Independence Day to recognize the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, celebrated on June 19th. It was signed into law by President Joe Biden on June 17, 2021, as the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. This holiday was recognized as a “federal” holiday just five years ago. However, Juneteenth celebrations have been happening in communities across the nation for more than a century, the first such celebrations were held in Texas. The holiday was so named because the news of freedom finally reached 250,000 enslaved men, women and children in Texas on June 19, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved men, women and children in the Confederate States on January 1, 1863, and six months after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31, 1865.
As I think about the delayed freedom for African Americans, I am reminded of one of my great-great grandfathers, born before 1865. Thanks to family records, I know his name. And I have a copy of a photograph of him looking proud and strong – a man aware of his human dignity. His name was Lloyd Lee. According to family records, he was born in 1851 in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Grandpa Lloyd would have been 14 years old in 1865. I do not know if he was a free person before 1865, but I know the chance of enslavement would no longer haunt him as an American. He would live a long life into his early 90s. During his lifetime, he would witness and experience our nation’s repeated struggles, stumbles, and delays in realizing the declaration of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all. And in spite of it all, my Grandpa Lloyd would thrive.
I am here because he thrived. And in spite of the continuous stumbling and struggling this nation has in achieving true equality for all Americans to this day, I believe that the people of this nation will embrace Pope Leo’s admonition to “respond firmly” against actions that deny freedom and equality. On June 19th and July 4th, I will celebrate the two American Independence Days in remembrance of my great-great grandfather’s pride, perseverance and sense of dignity.
(Veryl Miles serves as a special assistant to the president of The Catholic University of America and is a professor of law at the university’s Columbus School of Law.)
