“Love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your MIND”--Matt 22:37
I recently read this question on Catholic Answers "Quick Questions":
According to theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether, infallibility of the pope is untenable because no human perception of truth can be stated in a manner that lacks error or inadequacy. All ideas must be open to revision. Besides, the Church has erred repeatedly. Example: slavery. (By the way, is this woman Catholic?)
Answer
No, she is not Catholic, but she still carries the label because it gives her legitimacy. She is about as extreme a feminist fanatic as I have ever heard about. (Other professors at Boston College note that she won't allow men to enroll in her classes.) Her first point really is silly. Ask any mathematician whether the truth of an equation contains "error or inadequacy." A correct equation is completely true, with no admixture of error. And if such truth is possible in math, it must be possible in other things. As to her "example," infallibility applies only to formal teachings on matters of faith and morals. The Church never taught that slavery was good, only, as Paul noted, that, in a society in which slavery is accepted, the slave should be obedient to his master.--Karl Keating, Catholic Answers
Regarding the original question above, at least the latter part of the question "the Church condemns it", is correct. From Vatican II: "Whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery . . . the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed . . . they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator" (Gaudium et spes 27; cf. no 29).
Regarding the first part, "didn't popes once endorse slavery", well, that part is incorrect.
No pope has ever endorsed slavery.
However, this must be understood with some nuance. There have been no teachings from the Church/Chair of Peter/Papal Office that endorsed slavery. Yet it is true, sadly, that there have been indeed some popes who owned slaves. It is also true that there were popes who sired children with their mistresses, murdered people, stole, bore false witness. In short, every single one of the 10 commandments has probably been broken by a pope. Mortal sinners, a bunch of them! (And, I would be remiss if I didn't add: a whole lot of them were saintly, holy men living lives of intense prayer and service.)
Yet not a single heinous sinner of a pope has ever proclaimed, using the Chair of Peter, a false teaching. So while they may have engaged in adultery, not a one ever penned an encyclical asserting that adultery was now moral. They may have lied and cheated, but none of them ever proclaimed that lying and cheating is permissible.
As Jesus said: The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.—Matthew 23:1-3. That is, do what the Pharisees, yet sinners, tell you because of their position of authority, even if they say and do sinful things themselves.
Incidentally, when discussing slavery it must be acknowledged that there are different forms of slavery. Slavery in the ancient world (i.e. Biblical times) was a different animal, so to speak, than the relatively modern form of racial slavery that we're familiar with. Slaves in Roman and Biblical times could own property, run businesses, earn their freedom, and were considered to be inherently worthy of human rights. It was a form of indentured servitude that, while restricting the liberty of individuals, was of a different quality than that which we think of today.
Today, when we discuss slavery we mean enslaving an individual who is regarded as nothing more than the property of another, and as a being without inherent human dignity; in other words, as an object rather than a human person. Under this definition, slavery is intrinsically evil, since no person ought to be reduced to the status of a mere object and property of another person. --from a previous 3 Minute Apologetics blog.
And the above question regarding slavery is often presented as a way of intimating, "The Church may also be wrong about this teaching _____________{fill in the blank with whatever unpalatable, unlikable Church teaching the presenter may wish to dismiss}." That, I think, is the real reason slavery is often brought up. It is a means for a person to be able to argue that the current teaching he finds distasteful may also change.
For more in-depth study visit these websites:
Catholics Come Home
Catholic Bible online
Catechism of the Catholic Church online
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" - 1 Peter 3:15
