To: 
From: "Vern Humphrey" 
Reply-To: r_catholic-l{at}yahoogroups.com

To: seanmbrook{at}aol.com [mailto:seanmbrook{at}aol.com]
> >
> > VH> Imagine if Napoleon had had the good sense to send an army to New
> > Orleans,
> > not to Haiti!
> > > >
>  One big reason why he didn't was the Royal Navy.
>  And I think I recall reading of how, after Spain ceded
>  Louisiana to France, Napoleon did think for a time
>  of trying to develop the territory.  But, too many en-
>  tanglements in Europe kept Boney from any serious
>  effort building a French empire in North America.
>  Hence, his decision to sell Louisiana to the US for
>  15 million dollars (a vast sum in those days!).

But Napoleon DID send an army to Haiti -- and it got there safely.  It was
rendered virtually helpless by disease and destroyed by Toussaint
L'Overture's rebels, of course.  But that same army in New Orleans might
have changed history.
> >
> > VH> African slavery already existed -- the Crusaders had come
> into contact
> > with
> > it, and the Moors in Spain had had Black slaves.
> >
>  I know.  And so did all the Muslim empires.  And
>  not only black slaves, the Tatar Crimeans made a
>  big business from slave raids into Russia.  And the
>  Islamic world had to be forced to temporarily give
>  up slavery.  Unfortunately, slavery has revived in
>  Sudan and Mauritania.
>
>  But, as time passed, the Church discouraged slavery.
>  Which died out in much of Europe.  And Pope Alexander
>  III condemned the enslaving of the American Indians in
>  SUBLIMUS DEUS.

Yes -- for which Las Casas can be thanked.  But of course, Las Casas
advocated replacing indian slaves with Blacks.
>
> > VH> Recall that neither the Old of New Testaments condemn
> slavery, but rather
> > speak approvingly of it.  Saint Paul urges slaves to be obedient.
> >
>  No, not so much approvingly as something taken for
>  granted.  Even the OT set limits on the use of slavery.

The laws of the slave states set limits on slavery, too.  Setting limits is
one thing, enforcing them is another.  Roman law was quite lenient on
slaves -- but masters could kill them with impunity.
>
>  I think it's a good idea to quote from the Pauline
>  writings on this matter of slavery.
>
>
>  As the NAB's introduction to Philemon comments,
>  "Paul's letter deals with an accepted institution of
>  antiquity, human slavery.  But Paul breathes into this
>  letter the spirit of Christ and of equality withing the
>  Christian community.  He does not attack slavery
>  directly, for this is something the Christian commu-
>  nities of the first century were in no position to do,
>  and the expectation that Christ would soon come
>  again militated against social reforms.

That's absolutely correct.



> > >
>  And I remain undisturbed by the existence of the Knights
>  Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem and Malta.  I honor
>  them for the valor they have shown in the past.  And I
>  honor them still more for the works of piety and charity
>  they have done both in the past and now.  Recall their
>  labors in some of the poorest and toughest parts of the
>  world.

One may do good things and bad things.  Advancing the idea that one man may
be better than another because of birth is a bad thing.  It is, after all,
the undergirding idea behind things like racism, anti-Semetism, and
slavery.
>


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