Category: Sacrifice

A Long-Fought Cause Finally Accomplished 

The education of our children is of the utmost importance. It becomes even more so when the topic is a moral one. That is why the history of crimes against humanity has to be made clear.

Slavery, an institution that has records of its existence as far back as 3500 BC in Mesopotamia and is mentioned directly in the Book of Hammurabi in 1750 BC is one dark side of mankind that still exists to this day. 

For this note’s purposes, I will reflect on more recent history.

In the year 1435 AD Pope Eugene the IV wrote a papal bull condemning slavery, in no uncertain terms, when he learned of the enslavement of the black people in the Canary Islands. He wrote the following argument as it pertained to the Christian Faithful and their responsibilities before God. 

“They have deprived the natives of their property or turned it to their own use, and have subjected some of the inhabitants of said islands to perpetual slavery (<subdiderunt perpetuae servituti>), sold them to other persons and committed other various illicit and evil deeds against them…. Therefore We … exhort, through the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ shed for their sins, one and all, temporal princes, lords, captains, armed men, barons, soldiers, nobles, communities and all others of every kind among the Christian faithful of whatever state, grade or condition, that they themselves desist from the aforementioned deeds, cause those subject to them to desist from them, and restrain them rigorously. And no less do 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 pristine liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of said Canary Islands … who have been made subject to slavery (<servituti subicere>). These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of any money.” 

Then again in 1537 Pope Paul III wrote another letter against its practice in learning of the enslavement of the Native Americans “The Sublime God”. Which is a strongly worded document against slavery and specifically defending Native Americans as right free human beings. Two other bulls would be published to implement the teaching of this letter, one to impose penalties on those who fail to abide by the teaching against slavery, and a second to specify the sacramental consequences of the teaching that the Indians are true men. 

Therefore, it is no surprise that George Washington in the year 1799, the first president of the United States of America, a right, just and learned man would in his last will grant freedom to his slaves upon his death. But it is sad that a man with a justly formed conscious such as he had, did not have the will strong enough to free his slaves while he lived. He was a southerner, and going against the will of society was surely a big deterrent at the time. 

This point acknowledges the fact that mankind already knew that slavery was unjust and should be abolished. In fact, by the early 1800s a term Southern Democrat came into existence referring to those in the south of the nation that did not agree with the abolishment of slavery. 

The Catholic Bishops in the country did not particularly come out against slavery. But just like the crime of abortion (infanticide), which is currently widely accepted in these United States, the bishops of the USA succumb to the social and political elites and are unwilling to risk it all to vocalize the truth taught by the Church. Abortion unjustly dehumanizes a human baby for the sole purpose of its destruction because of many issues other than self-preservation.  

Again, the bishops playing politics as a religious minority in the population did not strongly oppose this evil. Rome then continued to press the issue, building upon letters of the previous popes Gregory XIV (1591) and Urban VIII (1639) and in 1839, Pope Gregory the XVI wrote the following. 

“We, by apostolic authority, warn and strongly exhort in the Lord faithful Christians of every condition that no one in the future dare to bother unjustly, despoil of their possessions, or reduce to slavery (<in servitutem redigere>) Indians, Blacks or other such peoples.” 

Then it all came to a head with the Civil War which began in 1861 and lasted five years. The death toll was astronomical. The total death toll was 618,222 men, of which 360,222 were the Union Soldiers who fought for the freedom of the slaves. This represented 3.34% of the population and would be the equivalent of 11 million people (about twice the population of Arizona) in our country dying today for a just cause. Let us not ever forget the bloodshed given by honest freedom loving men to right this wrong. 

June 19^th in the year 1865 is the day that the State of Texas declared the official emancipation of the slaves and from there is derived the contraction and term currently being used for this holiday “Juneteenth”, even though the president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln had already declared slavery illegal in the Emancipation proclamation of January 1, 1863.  

Because of this newfound freedom the Catholic Church had its first black priest in the United States of America, Venerable Augustus Tolton, who had been born into slavery. It was no easy task for this young catholic to become a priest and he had to travel to Rome to get an education due to the racism he still faced in the country. He was the founder of the first black parish in Chicago Illinois. 

Sadly, in the professionally researched book Grant by Ron Chernow, we learn true freedom had to be continually fought for as the Southern Democrats still retained power and imposed cruel and unjust punishment on the black people that opposed them. This would continue up into the 1960s. It is terribly sad that a country born out of a fight for freedom would itself have this dark stain on its history. 

Growing up in the USA as a Cuban Immigrant I faced only minor racism and always felt compassion for the blacks that had it worse. As the years went on, here in the northeast of the country I believed relations had improved and in fact in the 1990s when Los Angeles had its riots due to the Rodney King incident, I recall everyone in NYC took the following day off knowing full well that there would be no riots here. In fact, I would say racism was at its lowest until President Obama in my estimation promoted racial division. 

Sadly, we are still fighting racism. But now we are also fighting modern slavery. Let us all on this day remember those who in the past gave their lives so that others can live in freedom and pray for those in the battle against human trafficking and all evils that beset mankind. 

I will end this with a prayer. 

Dear Lord Father in Heaven, 

May You open the eyes and hearts of all the people on this earth to know that the only way to happiness is by loving your neighbor as yourself. Only by giving of ourselves by showing kindness, love and respect will the world become a better and happier place for all peoples of any color or origin.  Please give us all the grace to make it so.

I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.