Call for World Day of Prayer Against Trafficking
Women Religious Seek Greater Church Awareness of Human Trafficking
A Vatican seminar held 2-3 November was called by Pope Francis to investigate and discuss human trafficking. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis had worked closely with those fighting human trafficking. He is keen for the church to be involved in fighting this heinous crime.
Dr. Henrietta Williams, president of the Association of Catholic Medical Practitioners of Nigeria and a presenter at the conference, explained that the Pope’s desire was to “get together a group of experts in different disciplines,” because “it’s not a problem that one country or the lawyers or the doctors or the social scientists can solve.”
During the seminar women religious ask the Pope to raise awareness in the Church about human trafficking by establishing a world day of prayer and fasting. “The pope was very interested in our suggestion and asked us what date we would like the day to be,” Consolata Sister Eugenia Bonetti told Catholic News Service. “We told him Feb. 8 — the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita,” a Sudanese slave who found freedom in Italy and became a nun in the late 19th century.
