In emotional service, Jesuits and Georgetown repent for slave trading

[rug]

By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor
Updated 8:37 PM ET, Wed April 19, 2017

(CNN) There is a chasm, Frederick Douglass wrote in 1845, between Christianity proper and the "slaveholding religion of this land." One is "good, pure and holy," the other corrupt and wicked, the "climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds."

"We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries and cradle-plunderers for church members," Douglass wrote in "Life of an American Slave."

For Douglass, as for other African-Americans, the sin of slavery was intolerable; the complicity of Christians unforgivable.

On both counts, the Jesuit order, one of the Catholic Church's most powerful group of priests, (Pope Francis is a member) was guilty. In the United States and elsewhere, the Society of Jesus owned and sold slaves.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/living/georgetown-slavery-service/

2:08 video at link.