Pope Leo, an American-born pope descended from both enslavers and enslaved people, surprised many when, in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, he apologized for the Catholic Church’s historic complicity in slavery. He made clear that this apology was only the beginning; “what we have learned,” he…
Initiative director Kim Daniels writes in Religion News Service: In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo offers “a framework that transcends divisions, not by papering over real disagreements, but by beginning with something prior to them: the irreducible worth of the human person.”
Christine Emba, Ashley Feasley, Pete Davis, and Nicholas Hayes-Mota have joined Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life as fellows for the spring 2026 semester. As leading voices at the intersection of faith and public life, these new fellows share the Initiative’s commitment to the principles of Catholic social thought and to building bridges across political, religious, and ideological lines.
