Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: In a column two months ago, we summarized the Church’s condemnation of slavery by several Popes from the 15th to the 19th centuries and by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2414). Now Fr. Brian Harrison of Missouri has informed us that our response about magisterial statements on slavery “glosses over (unwittingly, I am sure) one such statement that I am afraid poses a rather embarrassing apologetic problem: the June 20, 1866 Instruction of the Holy Office on this subject.”
He said that this Instruction, which was approved by Blessed Pope Pius IX, “was sent as a response to a missionary bishop in East Africa (in what is now either Sudan or Ethiopia) who submitted a dubium asking whether it was okay for Christians in that society (where slavery was as endemic as it had been in the pre-Civil War South of the U.S.) to receive the sacraments while being slave-owners and buying and selling slaves. The Vatican’s response: no problem, provided certain conditions are met.”
Among the conditions, said the Instruction, was “whether the slave who is put up for sale has been justly or unjustly deprived of his liberty, and that the seller does nothing by which the slave to be transferred to another possessor suffer any detriment to life, morals, or the Catholic Faith. Therefore, Christians, about whom one is speaking in the first question, can licitly buy slaves or, to resolve a debt, receive them as a gift, as long as they are morally certain that those slaves were not taken from their legitimate master or reduced to slavery unjustly.”
Furthermore, said the Instruction, if slaves who “have been fully taught that freedom belongs to them by right,” and if they have “by their own free will” presented themselves to Christians seeking “a milder servitude in the hands of Christian buyers,” it would be “permissible for the Christians, especially when they act in favor of the Faith, to purchase such captives for a just price, and to take and retain them in their own servitude, as long as they are of the mind to treat them according to the precepts of Christian charity, and take care to imbue them with the rudiments of the Faith, so that, if it is possible, they may be freely and happily led, this being done by no compulsion, but only by opportune persuasion and encouragement, through their conversion to the True Faith into the liberty of the sons of God which is found only in the Catholic Church.”
The Instruction also said that “it is illicit to sell a slave into the ownership of any master who by a certain or probable judgment can be foreseen to be going to treat that slave inhumanely, or lead him to sin, or abuse him for the sake of that most evil trade which has been condemned and strictly prohibited by the constitutions of the Roman Pontiffs, especially by Pope Gregory XVI. Likewise it is illicit to sell a slave, taking no account of the marriage rights and duties of that same slave. Much more illicit is it to sell a Christian slave to a faithless master, or even, when the danger of falling away is prudently to be feared, to an heretical or schismatic master.”
So Christian families can sell their slaves “in good conscience,” said the Instruction in summary, “if they possess them legitimately and, in the sale, observe the cautions described above. So also the seller…can be admitted to the sacraments if it is a fact that the slaves who have come into his possession as pay have not been taken from their rightful master by theft nor been unjustly reduced to slavery, and if he furthermore solemnly promises that he will sell them in such moral conditions that none of the rights and duties which belong to them as men — and, if they have embraced the Christian Faith, as Christians — will be harmed or endangered by the sale.”
This Instruction refers to a more benign form of slavery than that which Pope Francis condemned in his World Day of Peace Message for 2015 (see the text in the December 18 Wanderer). In his message, the Holy Father said that today “slavery is rooted in the notion of the human person which allows him or her to be treated as an object. Whenever sin corrupts the human heart and distances us from our Creator and our neighbor, the latter are no longer regarded as beings of equal dignity, as brothers or sisters sharing a common humanity, but rather as objects. Whether by coercion or deception, or by physical or psychological duress, human persons created in the image and likeness of God are deprived of their freedom, sold, and reduced to being the property of others. They are treated as a means to an end.”
He cited such forms of slavery as subjecting men, women, and children to inhumane working conditions, forcing them into prostitution, arranged marriages, and sex slavery, and making them “objects of trafficking for the sale of organs, for recruitment as soldiers, for begging, for illegal activities such as the production and sale of narcotics, or for disguised forms of cross-border adoption.”
In conclusion, said Pope Francis, “I urgently appeal to all men and women of goodwill, and all those near or far, including the highest levels of civil institutions, who witness the scourge of contemporary slavery, not to become accomplices to this evil, not to turn away from the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, our fellow human beings, who are deprived of their freedom and dignity. Instead, may we have the courage to touch the suffering flesh of Christ, revealed in the faces of those countless persons whom He calls ‘the least of these my brethren’ (Matt. 25:40, 45). We know that God will ask each of us: What did you do for your brother? (Gen. 4:9-10).”
Q. Regarding the recent reading at Mass about the genealogy of Jesus, can you please explain the significance of this listing of names and also the significance of the number fourteen as the number of generations from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian exile, and from the Babylonian exile to the coming of the Messiah? — B.P., Massachusetts.
A. The purpose of genealogies in the Bible is to show historical connections among nations, tribes, and individuals. Thus, Matt. 1:1-17 traces the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham, the forefather of Israel, and lists 42 names by way of emphasizing the kingship of Jesus over Israel. Luke 3:23-38, on the other hand, goes back to Adam, the father of all nations, listing 56 names for the period covered by Matthew and 76 names in all, in order to stress Jesus’ role as Savior of the world. The lists do differ in some details, but they are substantially the same.
As for the number 14, here is an explanation from a footnote to Matt. 1:17 in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition:
“Matthew divides the genealogy into three units of 14. It is not exhaustive, since several OT names are omitted and the divisions cover unequal periods of time. Matthew stresses the number 14 to show Jesus as the new Davidic king: (1) David and Jesus are the only names listed with their respective titles (king, 1:6; Christ, 1:16); (2) David is the 14th name in the list; (3) the numerical value of David’s name (three consonants) in Hebrew equals 14 (D = 4 + V = 6 + D = 4). The 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus correspond to the 42 encampments of Israel during its wilderness journey to the Promised Land (cf. Num. 33:1-49). These generations bring us to the Messiah through whom we arrive at the land of promise in heaven (St. Jerome, Letters 78).”
Q. How could Pope Francis join in prayer at a mosque in Turkey? Wasn’t he worshiping a false God? — R.B.K., via e-mail.
A. In a November 30 interview on the plane returning to Rome from Turkey, here is how the Holy Father explained his visit to a Muslim mosque:
“I went to Turkey as a pilgrim, not a tourist. And I went especially for today’s feast [of St. Andrew]. I went precisely in order to celebrate it with Patriarch Bartholomew. It was for a religious reason. But then, when I entered the mosque, I couldn’t say now I’m a tourist! No, it was completely religious. And I saw that wonder! The mufti explained things very well to me, with such meekness and using the Koran, which speaks of Mary and St. John the Baptist. He explained it all to me….At that moment I felt the need to pray, so I asked him, ‘Shall we pray a little?’ To which he responded, ‘Yes, yes.’ I prayed for Turkey, for peace, for the mufti, for everyone, and for myself, as I need it. I prayed sincerely, most of all, I prayed for peace, and I said, ‘Lord, let’s put an end to these wars!’ Thus, it was a moment of sincere prayer.”
