| Abstrakt: |
This article attempts to highlight the capacity of Catholic culture to engage with certain issues of the radical Enlightenment: the question of the abolition of human trafficking, the emancipation of enslaved people and, finally, the equality of all human beings before God and before the law. To this end, the paper analyses two consultations presented, discussed and voted on within the Congregation of the Holy Inquisition in 1741 and 1795 that dealt with the moral and legal permissibility of slavery. In both cases, the contexts that had led to the two opinions, the sources used by the consultants to reach a decision and the final decisions established for the two cases are presented. The essay begins with an account of the traditional positions of the Holy Office on the question of slavery and analyses the context and sources of the Votum of 1741 which resulted in Benedict XIV's bull "Immensa pastorum". The article then reconstructs the context and sources of the Votum of 1795, which did not produce a final decision. The concise conclusion discusses the limits of Enlightenment in relation to the decisions of the Holy Office and opens the view to the changing nature of the position of the Catholic Church with regard to human trafficking in the 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
