Enslavement of Children.

Excmo. y Rvdmo. Sr. D. Francisco Cerro Chaves. Arzobispo de Toledo

Hasta la fecha, esta ha sido la única declaración del obispo sobre la esclavitud de los hijos de los sacerdotes: «Quiten su imagen».

Esclavitud de hijos de sacerdotes.

As of 06/03

06/03/2025, Coping International Limited has asked for a public apology from the diocese of Toledo for the deliberate enslavement of children of the ordained and grandchildren and religious since the year 655, a practise, only officially repealed in 1917.

The Ninth Council of Toledo was presided over by Saint Eugene of Toledo in the year 655. A medieval provincial synod, it composed a set of canons that entered into the ‘Decretum Gratiani’ (C 15 q 8 can. 3), a compilation of canon laws. The tenth canon is outlined below. Below the text of the canon is hyperlinked to the original Latin text.

Additionally, “the council decided […] no freed male or female ecclesiastic was allowed to marry a freeman (Hispano Roman or Visigoth) and if one did, the children of such a union were enslaved to the church.” This means that in some cases, two generations of children were enslaved by the Roman Catholic Church.

“Because many decrees of the Fathers were issued up to this time concerning the incontinence of the clerical order, and still were not able to correct their morals, the condemnation of the sins was extended so that the punishment should be incurred not only on the perpetrators of the crime, but also on the offspring of the condemned. Therefore, if anyone from bishop to subdeacon begets a child from a detestable marriage to a slave or a free woman while holding the office, then these children who are proven to have been begotten by them shall be punished by the canonical law. The offspring begotten from such a pollution shall never receive an inheritance from their parents, but, what is more, they shall remain forever in the service of the Church to whose disgrace they have been begotten by its priest or minister.”