Global action produces global results as Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical acknowledges the Church’s relationship to enslavement and offers an apology
Chicago, Il — May 26, 2026 — The Global Circle for Reparations and Healing is being recognized and congratulated for its historic vision, courage, and strategic leadership in traveling to the Vatican in July 2022 to directly confront the Roman Catholic Church over its role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the chattelization of African people, and the ongoing injuries suffered by Africans and people of African descent worldwide.
That decision, made during planning of a high-level reparations gathering at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy, has now produced a significant global result. On May 25, 2026, the Vatican released Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical. While the document focuses primarily on the Church’s Social Doctrine and the potential harms associated with artificial intelligence, it also acknowledges the Church’s relationship to enslavement and offers an apology. The encyclical recognizes the Church’s long “amnesia” concerning its role in the horrors of African enslavement and names papal bulls that authorized and regulated forms of subjugation, including Dum Diversas and Romanus Pontifex.
This apology did not emerge by accident. It is the result of sustained global pressure by Africans and African descendants who demanded recognition, accountability, and repair. In 2022, through the vision of Yvonne Darkwa-Poku, then of the MacArthur Foundation, the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing was formed to help build a united global reparations front. At the Bellagio gathering, spearheaded by Ms. Darkwa-Poku and convened with the support of Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Rockefeller Fellow, global reparations leaders and allies came together to advance a coordinated international strategy. Participants included Global Circle members, African and Afro-descendant leaders from the continent, Europe, and the United States, and allies from other justice movements.
When the Bellagio meeting was first proposed, the Global Circle’s Kamm Howard, insisted that they could not travel to Italy as reparations advocates and enforcers without confronting the Vatican. The Vatican had inaugurated and sanctioned what Professor Chinweizu called the “Chattelization Wars” against Africa through papal bulls, contracts, regulations, and authorizations that helped initiate and control the enslavement and dispossession of African people.
The Global Circle established a team led by Kamm Howard to develop a strategy for the Vatican visit. With assistance from Enola Aird, Esq., and earlier work by Siphiwe Ka Baleka on the Dum Diversas papal bull, the team drafted the Reparations Presentment to the Holy See. The Presentment laid out three central claims: crimes were committed, continuing injury exists, and repair is obligatory. It demanded full recognition of the Church’s actions, an apology consistent with international norms and Christian values, a commitment to global reparatory justice, rescission of papal bulls connected to African enslavement, an encyclical on reparations and healing for African people, a papal commission, and a substantial global monetary commitment to repair.
The delegation that delivered the Presentment to the Vatican included Kamm Howard, Dr. Ron Daniels, Dr. Amara Enyia, and Nikole Hannah-Jones of the Global Circle. Through the support of Jarrett Smith of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, the delegation secured a meeting with Bishop Paul Tighe, then Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The delegation delivered the Presentment and held an hour-long substantive discussion. Bishop Tighe acknowledged the seriousness of the matter and cautioned that the Vatican often moves slowly, sometimes in “15-year increments,” when making decisions that shift institutional culture. The delegation made clear that Africans and African descendants would not wait 15 years for justice.
The Vatican’s first and only official response stated that the Reparations Presentment “raised significant historical, legal, and moral issues” and required deeper consideration to determine who within the Vatican was best positioned to respond. Since that time, the Global Circle has continued to press the issue, including by re-delivering the Presentment to Vatican representatives at sessions of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.
The inclusion of the Church’s role in enslavement in Magnifica Humanitas in no way satisfies the demands of the Reparations Presentment. The encyclical falls short of a complete admission of complicity, a reparations-centered apology, or a full commitment to redress. Still, it represents a meaningful opening. Three demands of the Presentment—recognition, apology, and an encyclical addressing enslavement—have now entered the official language of the Church. This creates new leverage to accelerate the Vatican’s timeline and press for deeper talks on our demands, consistent with the Church’s own Doctrine of Reconciliation: contrition, confession, restitution, penance, and amends.
The Global Circle’s work also reflects the power of principled global coordination. The Vatican effort was supported by many actors, including Joe L. Washington and Kwanza Dos Santos in Italy; Mama June Lewis of the United Kingdom; Robin Rue Simmons, now N’nanba Balanta, of FirstRepair; Liliane Umubyeyi of Belgium; Jasmine Mickens of the United States; Following our effort others added to the this confrontation – Epsy Campbell-Barr, former Vice President of Costa Rica; Hon. Francia Márquez, Vice President of Colombia; Eric Phillips of the Guyana Reparations Commission; and Kim Poole of the Teaching Artist Institute.
“Today, we congratulate the Global Circle for Reparations and Healing for its vision, its courage, and its insistence that the Vatican be held accountable before the world. This moment proves that organized global African action produces global results. The work is not finished, but a foundation has been laid. The struggle now moves forward toward full recognition, full apology, and full repair.” Prof. Justin Hansford, Member, United Nations Permanent Forum for People of African Descent – PFPAD.
Asante Sana. A Luta Continua. Pamoja Tushinde Mbilishaka.
Many thanks. The struggle continues. Together, we will be victorious.
Media Contact:
Kamm Howard, Global Circle for Reparations and Healing 773 520 0369 kammh369@gmail.com
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