Activists take part in a “Walk for Freedom” in 2018 to protest against human trafficking in Berlin. The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2018 recently passed by Congress and signed Jan. 8 by President Donald Trump allocates $430 million through 2022 to prevent and respond to human trafficking in the U.S. and abroad. (CNS photo/Fabrizio Bensch, Reuters)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“Human trafficking is an open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ.” (Pope Francis)
Last month, the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section released a new document, “Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking,” highlighting the harsh realities of modern-day slavery that include forced labor, the sex trade, the marketing of human organs and other crimes against humanity. The document is the product of a long evaluation process following two global consultations with bishops’ conferences, Catholic organizations, religious communities, experts and human trafficking survivors themselves.
The new Vatican document points out that the discussion on trafficking often focuses on the perpetrators, not the consumers. But it is the consumers who ultimately drive the market and “constitute a huge mass who seem largely unaware of the exploitation of persons who are trafficked yet enjoy the benefits and services they provide.”
If men, women and children are trafficked, this is ultimately because there is great demand that makes their exploitation profitable.
The document stresses that accountability, prosecution and punishment are needed in order to reduce demand for human trafficking. In addition to sexual exploitation, the document also shines a light on the business and labor aspects of trafficking, particularly in the agricultural, fishing, construction and mining industries. The document says there’s an “urgent need for ethical assessment of current business models, aimed at revealing the mechanisms of entrapment and exploitation adopted by companies.”
It recommends regulations which require just employment contracts to be established, without clauses that permit abuse, and which are duly respected. “Ensuring good working conditions helps us to see that work is for the person and not the other way around.”
The document provides a practical framework to plan, establish and evaluate a range of actions to effectively end human trafficking. “The ultimate goal is to dismantle and eradicate this most evil and sinful enterprise of deception, entrapment, domination and exploitation.”
The document closes with the following prayer to Sudanese St. Josephine Bakhita, a victim of human trafficking herself, whose feast day is celebrated Feb. 8:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the inspiring example of St. Josephine Bakhita.
St. Josephine Bakhita, you were enslaved as a child; you were bought and sold, you were treated brutally.
Intercede, we implore you, for all those who are trapped in trafficking and slavery.
May their captors let them go, and may this evil be erased from the face of the earth.
St. Josephine Bakhita, once you regained your freedom, you did not let your sufferings define your life. You chose a path of kindness and generosity. Help those blinded by greed and lust who trample the human rights and dignity of their brothers and sisters. Help them to break out of their hateful chains, to become fully human again, and to imitate your kindness and generosity.
Dear St. Josephine Bakhita, your freedom drew you to Christ and his Church.
Then God called you to religious life as a Canossian Sister.
You practiced great charity, mercy and joyful gentleness in your vocation. Help us always to be like you, especially when we feel tempted to look away and not to help, to reject others or even to abuse them.
Intercede for us so that Christ may fill our hearts with joy as he always filled yours.
O Loving God, pour your merciful light into our troubled world.
Let it flood into the darkest shadows.
Bring salvation to the innocents who suffer under sinful abuse.
Bring conversion to the utterly lost souls who hold them captive and exploit them. Give us all the strength to grow in the true freedom of love for you, for each other and for our common home. Amen.
Pope Francis is calling all to pray and work together to end human trafficking. For more information, please visit www.officeforsocialministry.org/pastoral-orientations-on-human-trafficking/ or the Vatican Migrants and Refugees website at https://migrants-refugees.va/trafficking-slavery.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
