"You've got to see the relationship of what is happening today in terms of the past," Campayne said. "What is happening today is you have an eruption of the wounds of the past, an eruption of history."
Campayne frankly states things that raise the hackles of many Catholics – our church is not immune to racism, there is institutional racism in the church and Catholics need to face their history of complicity in the slave trade.
"Church people cannot escape this, because they were very much a part of the problem," she said.
But she's just as anxious to let people know that the teaching authority of the church decried slavery and slave trading from 1404 on:
- In 1462 Pope Pius II declared slavery an "enormous crime" (magnum scelus).
- In 1537 Pope Paul III forbade the enslavement of native people in the New World.
- Pope Urban VIII forbade slavery again in 1639.
- Pope Benedict XIV condemned slavery in 1741.
- Pope Pius VII demanded the Congress of Vienna suppress the slave trade in 1815.
- Pope Gregory XVI condemned the slave trade in 1839.
- In the bull canonizing Jesuit St. Peter Claver in 1888, Pope Pius IX branded the slave trade summum nefas or "supreme villainy."
- Pope Leo XIII sent out the encyclical In Plurimism on the abolition of slavery in 1888, ordering Brazilian bishops to abolish slavery.
Most of these condemnations, some even threatening excommunication, were ignored. Slaves have been found in Brazil in living memory. Well into the 20th century, blacks were not permitted to sit in the front pews in Cuba's Catholic churches. Throughout the centuries of slave trading priests travelled on slave ships and spinkled the cargo with water to baptize them.
"Africans were coming from heathenism, and enslavement would introduce them to Christianity and prepare their souls for Christianity," explained historian and author Afua Cooper. "That was a benefit of being enslaved. You would become a Christian and be assured of a place in heaven."Though the Portuguese legal code charged slave owners with baptizing their slaves, it was a sham and often ignored.
"In reality the whole enterprise was not about saving souls," said Cooper.
As lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, Sir John Graves Simcoe formally abolished slavery in 1793 but existing slaves were not freed until 1810. Simcoe was ahead of his colonial masters. The 1807 Slave Trade Act imposed a fine of 100 pounds for every slave found aboard a British ship, but slavers found ways around the regulation. The British Empire finally abolished slavery itself in 1833, though it tried to replace it with an apprenticeship system which was finally abandoned in 1838.
It was the American battle – religious, cultural, political and finally military – over slavery that involved Canada in the most strikingly Christian resistance to slavery. Before U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Declaration of Emancipation, Canada became "Canaan" or "the Promised Land" in the coded language of the underground railway. Slaves were led to Nova Scotia and Ontario by "Moses" – Harriet Tubman.
"It was by faith that people came (to Canada), and it was by faith that people remained, making the church the first structure outside of their own shelters that they constructed," said Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society.
One reason for Canadians to sit up and pay attention to the history lessons of Black History Month is that they will learn how their world was shaped, said Sadlier. She points out how the great fortunes which built Britain's 19th-century dominance in industry and trade were founded in the slave-powered plantations of the West Indies. The stock exchanges, Lloyd's of London, the first international banks are all fruit of the slave trade.
The fight against the slave trade also shaped our world. The British Imperial Act of July 1833, put into effect in August of 1834, set slaves free around the globe.
"It also was the first such human rights legislation, and we are all the beneficiaries of human rights," said Sadlier
The idea human rights are central to civilization is certainly behind the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops 2004 statement on racism, "Eliminate Racial and Religious Discrimination: See Every Person as My Sister or Brother."
"Efforts to end racial prejudice and religious discrimination are urgently required for peace to grow in our hearts, in our church, in our communities and in our world," the bishops said.
Campayne worked with the bishops on the three-year-old statement, and calls it a good first step. She's still waiting for a second step. She's hoping an educational kit the Canadian Council of Churches will launch March 25 will kick start a more serious look at institutional racism.
"It is a crucial moment. It's a wonderful opportunity for us to really begin facing up to our whole relationship, and also our relationship in the church," Campayne said.
There may be nothing revolutionary about Canada's Catholic bishops saying racism is wrong, but Cooper finds value in the fact bishops are moved to address the topic.
"You know why it matters?" she asks. "It matters because it's good for it to be said. It matters because people will listen more to a bunch of old white men than to me – the people who have power especially."
Ultimately, Black History Month and the year-long commemoration of the slave trade addresses the fundamentals of Christian faith, said Cooper.
"The central message for me of Christianity is the Gospel of Jesus, and He exhorted us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves," she said. "If we internalize that message, then really we couldn't practise racism."
For Campayne Black History Month is another opportunity for people to connect with the heart of their religion.
"We've got to examine our Christian principles going right back," she said. "We've got to live our Christian principles."
At Our Lady of Lourdes Church in downtown Toronto the parish will celebrate Black History Month and remember the 200th anniversary of the 1807 Slave Trade Act with a Mass celebrated by the first African-Canadian-born priest, Jesuit Father Bill Clarke (ordained June 1966).
The Canadian Council of Churches will launch "From Chains to Freedom: Journeying Towards Reconciliation" on March 25 in commemoration of the Slave Trade Act.