Human Trafficking Brings A Call To Prayer

This weekend – especially Saturday – pray to St. Josephine Bakhita. Ask her to intercede for the survivors and victims of human trafficking.

Saturday is the National Day of Prayer for Survivors and Victims of Human Trafficking, which was designated and approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration.

Someone kidnapped St. Josephine when she was a youngster and sold her into slavery. When she finally gained her freedom, she dedicated the rest of her life to sharing her story of deliverance from human trafficking, and to comforting the suffering.

What I hope you will remember most about this column, beyond the request that you pray this weekend for those who have endured (and are enduring) the damage and suffering of human trafficking, is what Pope Francis says about it in his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel):”

“I have always been distressed at the lot of those who are victims of various kinds of human trafficking. How I wish that all of us would hear God's cry: ‘Where is your brother?’ (Gen 4:9). Where is your brother or sister who is enslaved? Where is the brother and sister whom you are killing each day in clandestine warehouses, in rings of prostitution, in children used for begging, in exploiting undocumented labor? Let us not look the other way. There is greater complicity than we think. The issue involves everyone! This infamous network of crime is now well established in our cities, and many people have blood on their hands as a result of their comfortable and silent complicity” Evangelii Gaudium (211).

Less than a week ago, millions of Americans – and 10s of millions more around the world – spent a few hours focused on MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (within view of the Manhattan skyline), and the Super Bowl. Many of us fans provided a great example of the complicity Pope Francis describes above.

Ten days ago (Jan. 30), CNN.com reported that New York City police already had made 200 arrests for sex trafficking and related crimes. Major sporting events in this country have the propensity to draw traffickers, their victims and the crimes associated with them.

Did that occur to you over your nachos, brats, pizza, adult beverages and/or other menu items during the big game? Were you aware, as you watched the contest, that a University of Pennsylvania study asserted that almost a quarter-million American children and youth were at risk of sexual exploitation (including commercial sexual exploitation) … 14 years ago? Do you seriously believe that number has changed for the better?

The commercial sex trade, however, isn’t the only vehicle by which those who traveled to MetLife Stadium to watch the game in person (especially out-of-towners) could have been (and probably were) exposed to elements of human trafficking. Consider the following, from the U.S. State Department’s 2012 “Trafficking in Persons Report” section on our nation:

“Trafficking in persons can occur in many licit and illicit industries or markets, including in brothels, massage parlors, street prostitution, hotel services, hospitality, agriculture, manufacturing, janitorial services, construction, health and elder care, and domestic service, among others.”

Here in the diocesan communications office, we were more-than-happy to include information about the Feb. 8 National Day of Prayer in the Jan. 24 issue of The Message, which we delivered to every registered Catholic household across our 12 counties. Today, I reinforce the information we provided two weeks ago with this call to prayer.

In addition to St. Josephine Bakhita, I encourage you to pray to another of our saints, using a prayer many of us are familiar with and say often. In my opinion, its last 13 words describe almost perfectly the group that human-trafficking criminals are significant members of … “the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.”

St. Michael the Archangel and St. Josephine Bakhita, pray for us, and the survivors and victims of human trafficking – today and every day.