American Jesuits pledge $100 million for descendants of slaves they owned, sold

The Jesuits, a Catholic order of priests that counts Pope Francis among its members, have pledged to raise at least $100 million to atone for the order's ownership and sale of enslaved Black people in the early days of the American republic, The New York Times reported Monday. Historians and Catholic officials said it is one of the largest efforts by an institution to atone for participating in slavery.
The money will be paid out through a new foundation, the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, created through three years of discussions between Jesuit leaders and a group representing the descendants of 272 slaves the order sold to a Louisiana plantation in 1838 to save Georgetown College, now Georgetown University, the first Catholic institution of higher learning in the U.S. The sale raised $115,000, or about $3.3 million in today's dollars. Genealogists at the Georgetown Memory Project have identified about 5,000 living descendants of people enslaved by the Jesuits.
The new foundation is headed by one of the descendants, Joseph Stewart, and its governing board includes representatives from Georgetown and other institutions with roots in slavery. The Jesuits have already contributed $15 million and plan to raise the other $85 million over the next five years. About half the annual budget will go toward grants for organizations engaging in racial reconciliation, a quarter will fund educational grants and scholarships for descendants, and some of the money will go directly toward supporting the needs of old and infirm descendants, the Times reports.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Stewart wrote the Jesuit leadership in Rome in May 2017, calling for negotiations over the newly resurfaced Georgetown slave sale. The Jesuit superior general, Rev. Arturo Sosa, wrote back a month later, urging Stewart's group and American Jesuits to talk and describing the order's slaveholding past as "a sin against God and a betrayal of the human dignity of your ancestors." In August 2017, Rev. Timothy Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, flew to Michigan to meet with the Stewarts and lay the groundwork for the new foundation.
"This is an opportunity for Jesuits to begin a very serious process of truth and reconciliation," Fr. Kesicki said in a statement. "Our shameful history of Jesuit slaveholding in the United States has been taken off the dusty shelf, and it can never be put back."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
October 13 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Monday's political cartoons include Donald Trump's consolation prize, government workers during shutdown, and more
-
Can Gaza momentum help end the war in Ukraine?
Today's Big Question Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles hints at ‘warming relations’ between Ukraine and US
-
The Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being released
The Explainer Triumphant Donald Trump addresses the Israeli parliament as families on both sides of the Gaza war reunite with their loved ones
-
Trump DOJ indicts New York AG Letitia James
Speed Read New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted as Trump’s Justice Department pursues charges against his political opponents
-
Judge blocks Trump’s Guard deployment in Chicago
Speed Read The president is temporarily blocked from federalizing the Illinois National Guard or deploying any Guard units in the state
-
Trump urges jail for Illinois, Chicago leaders
Speed Read The Texas National Guard begin operations in the Chicago area
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-off
Speed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to Chicago
Speed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats