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Ghana welcomes papal apology for slavery
May 28, 2026
» Continue to this story on BBC
CWN Editor's Note: Ghana welcomed Pope Leo XIV’s apology for the Holy See’s complicity in the slave trade.
Ghana’s government stated that the apology “reinforces the growing global understanding that confronting historical injustices demands truth-telling and moral responsibility as essential foundations for justice and reconciliation,” the BBC reported.
The statement came two months after the United Nations adopted a declaration on slavery backed by Ghana’s foreign minister. At the time, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the new apostolic nuncio to the United States, criticized the declaration for its “partial narrative, which, regrettably, does not serve the cause of truth,” adding that “as early as 1435, Pope Eugene IV condemned the enslavement of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands and excommunicated those who refused to free them.”
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Posted by: feedback -
Today 8:25 AM ET USA
The very problem with this kind of emotional historical apologies is that they necessarily make shortcuts and omissions, and blur or distort the truth. Slavery involved local slave hunters and slave traders. But the Pope's apology and its quick acceptance by the current government of Ghana already created a picture that will be hard to correct its one-sidedness. Next: expect demands for reparations. Pope Leo needs better advisors.
