Slavery And The Catholic Church

Largely the Catholic faith chose to neglect the effects of slavery, and their stance on the issue, because slavery benefited many of the organization’s personal finances. Who wants to admit that they messed up, especially a powerful religious institution tasked with upholding of the moral standard for a vast standing of followers? “The Catholic social teaching promotes the idea that as a human being, made from the image of God we have an inherent dignity, which should be respected quite opposite of the exact nature of slavery, which by definition is dehumanizing (USCCB).” I wish to examine the many ways Maxwell shows in, Slavery and the Catholic Church, how slavery was not recognized within the institution of the Catholic Church. Seeing how
a culture or society views slavery is important for how slaves were treated and why they were treated that way. “Slavery has been practiced by many nations, and communities across the world, most effectively in ancient times to the point it became somewhat a cultural normality; due to slavery’s use as a common practice Catholic officials chose to stay impartial rather than indefinitely support or protest its practice (Maxwell pg.3).” This is saying since slavery has not been addressed in society we are going to keep supporting it so that we can benefit from it. I heard before that they prohibit the enslavement of recently baptized slaves but this became a problem because the number of slaves owned by Christians increased. “Catholics also tried to whitewash what the bishops, preachers, and priests said about slavery (Maxwell pg.2).” White washing what they said would help them move forward with slavery and benefit from the profits of slavery. No one wanted to admit whether it was right or wrong because the income and what they contributed to the household was far too much to lose. “They introduced the reintroduction of the principles of Roman law concerning legal titles of slave ownership regarding the birth from a slave mother (Maxwell pg.2).” There are several attempts to hide slavery or diminish it in the Catholic Church. Slave ownership was based on the slave mother because the fathers were sometimes free white men. If the mother determined the slave status most of them would be slaves. Catholic moralists have a tendency to neglect a consideration of the effects of slave masters acts to pay more attention to his intentions or motives.
Slaves didn’t have much education and legally couldn’t testify in court so their opinions and self-worth were not respected. All of the things that the Catholic teachings say are opposite of how slaves were treated. But they weren’t even seen as humans so I do not know how these things apply to them. There aren’t any things in which blacks and whites were equal with when slavery was going on. The treatment of slaves was horrendous and it made it known that the slaves were treated as less than
human. The church talks about human life and morality and this is definitely an issue that comes up for me. How can you say that it’s okay to have slaves when you are exploiting the rights of that person’s labor? “The Catholic social teachings say that human life is sacred and that the dignity of a human life is the moral vision for society (USCCB).” Slaves were not a moral vision for society they just helped to make goods, keep up with farm, tend to crops, and take care of the household. “The church also teaches that the role of government and other institutions is to protect human life and human dignity while promoting the common good (USCCB).” This is the opposite of how slaves were treated their life was not sacred and they weren’t even aloud to have a voice in the government. Every person is supposed to have a right for life and respect. These are duties that we do for one another especially our friends and our families. “The Catholic teaching focuses on the poor more than the wealthy because you are supposed to put the needs of the poor first (USCCB).” This is another problem because society is divided by the rich and the poor and the poor are not benefited. Most slaves were poor because their masters took their earnings or they try to use it to buy their freedom. I have heard some people say that slaves had it good because they have somewhere to stay, something to eat, and somewhere to work but that is ignorant to say because that is not what they chose. I remember reading in the Classic Slave Narrative Book where Equiano mentioned that he was brought onboard a slave ship by his own people. This makes me question did they sell their own people and start slavery and then want to back out? This is something that we do not hear a lot about in today’s society. When the Catholic teaching was talking about Participation they said that “all people have the right to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society.” (USCCB) Slaves had no right for anything really because they had no economic status and no political power whatsoever. Their cultural life had a lot of flaws because they were taken from their own culture and placed in another often times forced to just work. They also say that “The ultimate injustice for a person or group to be treated actively or abandoned passively as if they were nonmembers of the human race.” (USCCB) This statement contradicts everything that slavery is about because they are abandoned and treated as if they aren’t humans so this is a contradictive statement. “The Stewardship of creation says that we are called to protect people and the planet living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation (Catholic Charities of St.
Paul).” Even though slaves weren’t counted as humans they are God’s creation because where else could they have come from. Who else could have created slaves? Catholic social teaching says that we are our brothers and sisters keepers wherever they are. This is hard for me to take seriously because so many Catholics had slaves so these teachings are going against everything that slavery is. There is also a close relationship between peace and justice in Catholic social teaching which a contradictive statement is also because there was no peace or justice with slavery. We were all created free but because of sin slavery came into the world as a punishment. Everyone knew slavery was bad but didn’t want to admit it because it benefited everyone in the long run. There was talk of emancipating slaves but not all slaves, only those who were sincere in converting to Christianity or that way of life. Most slaves didn’t believe in Christianity though they pretended to so that they could earn their freedom. They had their own religions normally which they still held to be true. It must have been hard for them to learn a whole new way of life and a whole new culture. The Christians knew what they were doing when they put passages in the bible to make slaves obey them and not
rebel. I read somewhere that it said In America before the civil war, the majority of Evangelical Christians were totally convinced that “their personal relationship with Jesus Christ” allowed them to have slaves. This is so ridiculous because it’s implying that it’s okay to own slaves as long as you make sure to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s hard to know if these ideals are generational or just what they believed. In the Old Testament says that “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and your members of their clans born in your country and they will become your property (Leviticus 25:44-45).” This passage is saying it’s okay to have slaves just don’t enslave your community. It says anyone who is not a resident can become your property pretty much giving reasons to entertain slavery. If these people can become your property just because they aren’t permanent residents then they aren’t given much hope. The Old Testament also says “When a slave owner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two there is no punishment for the slave is the owner’s property (Exodus 21:20-21).” This is a very horrible passage to me because that is totally condoning slavery. I can understand saying that the master shouldn’t be punished in the slave is just hurt not dying because if the slave dies in a day or two that’s the same thing as dying right there. The lives of slaves are not valued so that can be why African Americans are still treated badly in our society. Back then slave masters had all of the power regardless of the situation. “There is a passage about a Hebrew slave in the Old Testament who is to ser