Pope's visit to hub of Afro-Peruvian community casts spotlight on African slave trade to Peru

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Pope Leo XIV is putting the spotlight on Afro-Peruvians during a visit to a hub of their community

Pope Leo XIV is putting the spotlight on Afro-Peruvians during a visit to a hub of their community

ZAÑA, Peru -- When Susana Baca, the Latin Grammy-winning Afro-Peruvian singer, serenaded Pope Leo XIV upon his arrival in Peru, it was a sign that the visit would provide an unparalleled spotlight on the culture that grew out of the African slave trade in this country.

Baca was also Peru’s first Black Cabinet minister, and she became a leading figure in the campaign to end the discrimination that has long made second-class citizens of Black Peruvians and Peru’s Indigenous peoples.

The U.S.-born Leo, whose own family tree includes enslaved people and slave owners, is expected to highlight Peru’s African-descended community when he visits the hub of Afro-Peruvian culture on Saturday in the city of Zaña.

Leo will lead a prayer meeting at the sanctuary of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo in Zaña, where he often visited to pray while he was bishop of nearby Chiclayo.

In the 16th century, Mogrovejo was the first archbishop of Lima. He defended the rights of Indigenous and enslaved people and was known for having confirmed St. Martin de Porres, the first Black saint of the Americas and the patron saint of racial harmony, social justice and people of multiracial backgrounds.

In his first encyclical, “Magnificent Humanity,” Leo made a sweeping apology for the role of past popes in legitimizing slavery and failing to condemn it for centuries. It was a reference to the series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican that authorized European sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.

“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”

The estimated 100,000 African slaves brought to Peru after the arrival of Spanish conquistadores…

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