“Please also note that in terms of slaveholding, very few Catholics ever held slaves in the US - it was a predominantly Protestant practice.”
That is not really true either as many Catholics owned slaves in the USA including the U.S. Catholic Church it’s self, maybe not as many in volume as Protestants, they still were guilty of the sin.
“Two slaveholding states, Maryland and Louisiana, had large contingents of Catholic residents; however both states had also the largest numbers of former slaves who were freed.
Archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland John Carroll, had two black servants - one free and one a slave.
The Society of Jesus in Maryland owned slaves who worked on the community’s farms. The Jesuits began selling off their slaves in 1837.
Bishop John England of Charleston actually wrote several letters to the Secretary of State under President Martin Van Buren explaining that the Pope, in In Supremo, did not condemn slavery but only the slave trade.”
“
That is not really true either as many Catholics owned slaves in the USA including the U.S. Catholic Church it’s self, maybe not as many in volume as Protestants, they still were guilty of the sin.
Guilty of slaveholding, sure, the few that did. Generally speaking, slaveholding was not looked upon as a good by the Church, although there were enough Catholics who did.
Gregory XVI in 1839 issued a Papal Bull that prohibited Catholics from engaging in slavery, after realizing that individuals in the US were not restrained by less than that. That settled that matter then.
“Two slaveholding states, Maryland and Louisiana, had large contingents of Catholic residents; however both states had also the largest numbers of former slaves who were freed.
However, they did not have a majority of Catholics, nor were these states' laws written from Catholic ecclesial law.
The Society of Jesus in Maryland owned slaves who worked on the community’s farms. The Jesuits began selling off their slaves in 1837.
Two years before the Papal Bull, the Jesuits divested themselves (albeit some of the slaves were sold, I regret to report).
Bishop John England of Charleston actually wrote several letters to the Secretary of State under President Martin Van Buren explaining that the Pope, in In Supremo, did not condemn slavery but only the slave trade.”
Yes. We have always had bishops that preached non Catholic beliefs, and engaged in non Catholic rhetoric and behaviour.
The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops, so was the opinion of the Fathers. We have examples of them to this day. All we can do is fight their influence and rid Christianity of that influence and sometimes, them. Even Augustine himself had to be reclaimed. Some, like Origen never did come back...