By Gina Christian | OSV News

The Vatican’s top diplomat to the United Nations condemned modern and historical slavery — while countering what he called a “partial narrative” in a newly adopted U.N. resolution denouncing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity.”

The resolution also called for reparations by member states to affected nations.

Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N., delivered a statement on the issue March 25, observed as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.