International day of prayer against human trafficking

The 8th of February,feast of St Josephine Bakhita has been declared an international day of prayer against human trafficking: Vatican City, 26 November 2014 (VIS) – The Pontifical Councils for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples and for Justice and Peace, in collaboration with the international male and female Unions of Superior Generals (UISG and USG) have convoked an international conference for prayer and reflection on human trafficking, to be held on 8 February 2015, feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita, the Sudanese slave canonised in 2000.
According to a press release, “human trafficking is one of the worst examples of slavery in the XXI Century. This concerns the whole world. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) roughly 21 million people, often very poor and vulnerable, are victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced labour and begging, illegal organ removal, domestic servitude and forced marriages, illegal adoption and other forms of exploitation. Each year around 2.5 million people are victims of trafficking and slavery: 60 are women and children. They often suffer abuse and unspeakable violence. On the other hand, for traffickers and pimps, this is one of the most lucrative illegal activities in the world, generating a total of 32 billion dollars a year. It is the third most profitable ‘business’ after drugs and arms trafficking”.
“The primary objective of the International Day is to create greater awareness on this phenomenon and to reflect on the overall situation of violence and injustice that affect so many people, who have no voice, do not count, and are no one: they are simply slaves. Another goal is to attempt to provide solutions to counter this modern form of slavery by taking concrete actions. For this, it is necessary to stress the need to ensure rights, freedom and dignity to all trafficked persons, reduced to slavery. On the other hand, we must denounce both the criminal organisations and those who use and abuse the poverty and vulnerability of victims to transform them into goods for pleasure and gain”.

Similar Posts

What Pope Francis was thinking of last Friday – the day of the Irish Bishops ‘ad limina’ and Donald Trump’s Inauguration

Articles, Pope Francis
1 Comment

Last Friday Pope Francis also had other matters on his mind along with the ‘Ad limina’ visit of the Irish bishops. He gave hour and a quarter long interview with the Spanish Newspaper El País.
A lot of what he says will sound familiar.
“Talk, please. A fraternal conversation, if you feel up to it, or at least in a civilized way. Don’t throw insults at each other. Don’t condemn before talking.”
“Too much order. When you read the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Paul’s epistles, it was a mess, there were troubles, people moved. There was movement and contact with people. An anesthetized person is not in touch with people. He protects himself against reality.”

‘Ordination ideas have changed over time’

Articles
2 Comments

The issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood should not even be mentioned according to some, never mind discussed and debated. For others the fact the the catholic church does not allow ordination for women is an issue of justice and diminishes the church’s voice when commenting on other issues in society.
In an interesting article in the National Catholic Reporter Thomas C Fox writes of the approach taken by Gary Macy, professor of theology and chair of the religious studies department at Santa Clara University. Macy argues that we need to look to the history of the church to gain a full understanding of the nature of priesthood and ordination.

3 Comments

  1. Mary Vallely says:

    It is shameful, shameful, the depths of depravity and cruelty to which humankind is capable of sinking. Shameful to think that we have to have a day to raise awareness of something which is in our midst. It is no longer ‘out there.’ However, I do believe that people will respond better to individual stories of trafficking if we were to hear them. It is a sad fact that statistics do not move the heart (and then to action) as much as hearing the story of one person who has been treated as less than human.
    It is also a good time to reflect on and recognise our own attitudes as Catholics to others, to women, to children, to those of a different ethnic or social background. We are all in need of constant reminders of the message of the Jesus we are trying to follow, all in need of a good shake-up from out of our own navel gazing and comfort zone.

    Reply
  2. Lloyd Allan MacPherson says:

    Human trafficking shows that we as a whole fail to challenge the root structures which allow us to constantly reward exploitation. Slavery is not all about bad individuals doing bad things to good people. You can’t eliminate slavery without fundamentally changing how our societies and economies are organised. The distribution of political and economic power includes a global economy that depends on the exploitation of poor people’s labour to maintain growth and profit.
    Every billionaire in our midst owes his financial status to this very exploitation. The question should be whether we are ready to attack a global system that works to keep existing structures in place?

    Reply
  3. Soline Humbert says:

    A LIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING Information Website
    As part of the new international day of prayer on 8th February the religious leaders have launched a new website that contains stories of those who have been trafficked, prayers about the issue, and suggestions for how to take action. http://a-light-against-human-trafficking.info/

    Reply

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.