Pope Eugene IV in 1435 (57 years before Columbus' 1st voyage) wrote to Bishop Ferdinand of Lanzarote in his Bull: Sicut Dudum >
"We order and command all and each of the faithful of each sex that, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their earlier liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of said Canary Islands...who have been made subject to slavery. These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of any money ..."

Pope Paul III in 1537 issued a Bull against slavery, Sublimis Deus >
"He (Satan) has stirred up some of his allies who, desiring to satisfy their own avarice, are presuming to assert far and wide that the Indians ... be reduced to our service like brute animals, under the pretext that they are lacking the Catholic faith. And they reduce them to slavery, treating them with afflictions they would scarcely use with brute animals ... by our Apostolic Authority decree and declare by these present letters that the same Indians and all other peoples - even though they are outside the faith - ... should not be deprived of their liberty ... Rather they are to be able to use and enjoy this liberty and this ownership of property freely and licitly, and are not to be reduced to slavery ..."

Note: Pope Paul not only condemned the slavery of Indians but also "all other peoples." Of course the anti-Christ heretics would not listen to the Church so that the states of North America which were not controlled by Catholics continued in their sinful slave keeping crimes.

Pope Gregory XVI issued a Bull in 1839 against slavery, entitled In Supremo >
"We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce to slavery Indians, Blacks or other such peoples."

Note: When Gregory XVI used the phrase "faithful Christians of every condition" he was not stating that there is Christianity outside of the Catholic Church (which there isn't - heretics are not Christians) but must have been referring to the various states of Catholics in that some may have fallen into sin.

Pope Leo XIII, On the Abolition of Salvery, Paragraph 3, 5 May 1888 >
"In the presence of so much suffering, the condition of slavery, in which a considerable part of the great human family has been sunk in squalor and affliction now for many centuries, is deeply to be deplored; for the system is one which is wholly opposed to that which was originally ordained by God and by nature. The Supreme Author of all things so decreed that man should exercise a sort of royal dominion over beasts and cattle and fish and fowl, but never that men should exercise a like dominion over their fellow men. "

Pope Leo XIII, On Slavery in the Missions, Paragraph 1, 20 November 1890 >
"There are incontestable historical documents which attest to that fact, documents which commended to posterity the names of many of Our predecessors. Among them St. Gregory the Great, Hadrian I, Alexander III, Innocent III, Gregory IX, Pius II, Leo X, Paul III, Urban VIII, Benedict XIV, Pius VII, and Gregory XVI stand out. They applied every effort to eliminate the institution of slavery wherever it existed."

Pope Pius X, On the Indians of South America, Paragraph 1, 7 June 1912 >
"It is true that soon afterwards the worst of these indignities - that is to say, slavery, properly so called - was, by the goodness of the merciful God, abolished; and to this public abolition of slavery in Brazil and in other regions the excellent men who governed those Republics were greatly moved and encouraged by the maternal care and insistence of the Church."

Pope Pius X, On the Indians of South America, Paragraph 6, 7 June 1912 >
"By the help of our Apostolic authority, we, mindful of the example of our aforesaid predecessor, condemn and declare guilty of grave crime whosoever, as he says, 'shall dare or presume to reduce the said Indians to slavery, to sell them, to buy them, to exchange ... or in any way whatsoever to rob them of freedom'."

Pope Leo XIII, On the Evils of Society, Paragraph 5, 21 April 1878 >
"Further, who will deny that the Church has done away with the curse of slavery and restored men to the original dignity of their noble nature ... founding and taking into her keeping excellent charitable institutions which provide relief for ills of every kind."

~ ~ ~ ~

<<< --- <<< --- <<< --- <<< ---  End Section 83  --- >>> --- >>> --- >>> --- >>>

Immaculate Heart of Mary    ~     Our Lady of Good Remedy    ~     Our Lady of La Salette    ~     Immaculate Heart of Mary