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Pon­tif­i­cal Coun­cil for the Pas­toral Care of the Migrants and Itin­er­ant People

 

Iº INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF PASTORAL CARE FOR THE LIBERATION OF WOMEN

OF THE STREET

ROME, 20th – 21st JUNE 2005

 

FINAL DOCUMENT

 

THE EVENT 

The meet­ing was held at the Pon­tif­i­cal Coun­cil for the Pas­toral Care of Migrants and Itin­er­ant Peo­ple in Rome. In addi­tion to the supe­ri­ors of the Pon­tif­i­cal Coun­cil, it was attend­ed by five Dicas­t­ery offi­cials; two Bish­ops; var­i­ous priests, reli­gious and lay peo­ple; del­e­gates from the Bish­ops’ Con­fer­ences of nine­teen Euro­pean nations, name­ly Alba­nia, Ger­many, Bel­gium, Bosnia-Herze­gov­ina, the Czech Repub­lic, Den­mark (Nordic coun­tries), Scot­land, Slove­nia, Spain, Esto­nia, Hol­land, Hun­gary, Eng­land, Ire­land, Italy, Mon­tene­gro, Poland, Por­tu­gal and Switzer­land; and del­e­gates from oth­er con­ti­nents, includ­ing experts, name­ly from the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go, India, Nige­ria and Thai­land. Also present were del­e­gates from the USG (Union of Supe­ri­ors Gen­er­al) and the IUSG (Inter­na­tion­al Union of Supe­ri­ors Gen­er­al); CELAM; the Pope John XXIII Com­mu­ni­ties’ Asso­ci­a­tion; the Legion of Mary; rep­re­sen­ta­tives from oth­er asso­ci­a­tions that car­ry out apos­tolic work in this area; and a rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Car­i­tas Internationalis.

After a warm wel­come, the Pres­i­dent of the Pon­tif­i­cal Coun­cil, H.Em. Stephen Fumio Car­di­nal Hamao, opened the pro­ceed­ings by high­light­ing the impor­tance of this issue, which calls for the atten­tion and pas­toral care of the Uni­ver­sal Church and the par­tic­u­lar Churches.

Arch­bish­op Agosti­no Mar­che­t­to, Sec­re­tary of the Dicas­t­ery, pre­sent­ed the theme and agen­da of the meet­ing and also pro­posed some assess­ment cri­te­ria and pas­toral cours­es of action regard­ing this issue. In his speech, enti­tled “Street women today, a pas­toral chal­lenge”, he high­light­ed a vast and impor­tant field of apos­tle­ship, which also requires new pas­toral agents. He also referred with con­cern to human beings, many of whom live in a sit­u­a­tion where their min­i­mum per­son­al rights are not respect­ed, as their own bod­ies are the object of trad­ing and traf­fick­ing in people.

The sub­se­quent speech­es by par­tic­i­pants at the meet­ing drew atten­tion to var­i­ous aspects of the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion of the women of the street. The Church looks on them with com­pas­sion and a sense of Chris­t­ian wel­come, and pro­pos­es con­sid­er­a­tion of the under­ly­ing spir­i­tu­al and the­o­log­i­cal val­ues of a pas­toral com­mit­ment that reveals God’s benev­o­lence regard­ing them, as every­one is aware of the many tragedies that lie buried beneath such expe­ri­ence. This gives rise to par­tic­u­lar con­cern regard­ing the dra­mat­ic increase in the num­ber of women and girls who are sex­u­al­ly exploit­ed, cre­at­ing an urgent need for pas­toral action in syn­er­gy that goes beyond exist­ing praise­wor­thy and gen­er­ous recep­tion ini­tia­tives and the cur­rent dif­fi­cul­ty of includ­ing such actions with­in exist­ing eccle­sial structures.

Mrs. Mari­ette Grange, del­e­gate of the Inter­na­tion­al Catholic Migra­tion Com­mis­sion (ICMC), devel­oped the theme enti­tled “Peo­ple traf­fick­ing, with par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to women traf­ficked for pros­ti­tu­tion”, while Pro­fes­sor Mario Pollo’s report, “Over­all vision result­ing from a Prepara­to­ry sur­vey”, gave an overview of the sit­u­a­tion, tak­en from replies to a ques­tion­naire, which was pre­vi­ous­ly sent out to all par­tic­i­pants. The results indi­cate a cer­tain lack of the more specif­i­cal­ly pas­toral aspect. Final­ly, Father Oreste Ben­zi, head of Pope John XXIII Com­mu­ni­ties’ Asso­ci­a­tion, gave his opin­ions on the theme: “For a pas­toral min­istry of redemp­tion and liberation”.

Six experts took part in the round table: Sis­ter Euge­nia Bonet­ti, I.S.M.C., from IUSG; Father Ottavio Cantarel­lo, SC, Direc­tor of the “Samuel” Com­mu­ni­ty, pro­posed by the Ital­ian Con­fer­ence of Major Supe­ri­ors; Ms. Síle Ní Chochlín, from the Coun­cil of the Legion of Mary; Sis­ter Lali­ni Gunawar­dene, RGS; Sis­ter Michelle Lopez, RGS, from the Foun­tain of Life Cen­tre; and Doc­tor Pao­lo Ramon­da, Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Pope John XXIII Com­mu­ni­ties’ Asso­ci­a­tion. This round table dealt with draw­ing up “guide­lines for spe­cif­ic pas­toral care”.

At the end of this inter­na­tion­al meet­ing, which includ­ed exchange of news, pas­toral opin­ions, expe­ri­ences and in-depth inves­ti­ga­tions, inter­est­ing ini­tia­tives were con­sid­ered and acknowl­edged, tak­ing account of the diverse sit­u­a­tions that exist in var­i­ous coun­tries. Reaf­firm­ing their inten­tion to pur­sue the work con­clud­ed dur­ing these days, in a spir­it of col­lab­o­ra­tion and with a degree of coor­di­na­tion, the par­tic­i­pants exam­ined tac­tics and strate­gies for the future, and method­olo­gies and objec­tives, which are sum­marised in the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions and recommendations.

CONCLUSIONS

Some key points

1. Pros­ti­tu­tion is a form of mod­ern day slavery

It is impor­tant to rec­og­nize that sex­u­al exploita­tion, pros­ti­tu­tion and traf­fick­ing of human beings are all acts of vio­lence against women and as such con­sti­tute an offence to the dig­ni­ty of women and are a grave vio­la­tion of basic human rights. The num­ber of women of the street has increased dra­mat­i­cal­ly through­out the world for a vari­ety of com­plex eco­nom­ic, social and cul­tur­al rea­sons. In some cas­es the women involved have expe­ri­enced patho­log­i­cal vio­lence or sex­u­al abuse since child­hood. Oth­ers have been dri­ven into pros­ti­tu­tion in order to have suf­fi­cient means of liv­ing for them­selves or their fam­i­lies. Some search for a father fig­ure or a lov­ing rela­tion­ship with a man. Oth­ers are try­ing to pay off unrea­son­able debts. Some leave sit­u­a­tions of pover­ty in their coun­try of ori­gin, believ­ing that the job being offered over­seas will change their lives. It is clear that the sex­u­al exploita­tion of women that per­vades the world’s social fab­ric is a con­se­quence of many unjust systems.

Many women of the street who are in pros­ti­tu­tion in the so-called First World come from the Sec­ond, Third and Fourth Worlds. In Europe and else­where many of them have been traf­ficked from oth­er coun­tries to meet a grow­ing con­sumer demand. How­ev­er not all of those who have been traf­ficked are in pros­ti­tu­tion and not all pros­ti­tutes have been traf­ficked. Human slav­ery is not new. The Inter­na­tion­al Labour Orga­ni­za­tion (ILO) esti­mates that cur­rent­ly there are 12.3 mil­lion peo­ple enslaved in enforced and bond­ed labour and that about 2.4 mil­lion of these are vic­tims of the traf­fick­ing “indus­try”, whose annu­al income is esti­mat­ed at of US$ 10 billion.

2. The Link Between Migra­tion, Human Rights and Trafficking

The link between migra­tion, human rights and traf­fick­ing has grad­u­al­ly been dis­cov­ered, and broad­er forms of traf­fick­ing have been rec­og­nized and analysed (debt bondage, slav­ery, sex­u­al or labour exploita­tion). The def­i­n­i­tion of traf­fick­ing used in the UN Pro­to­col to Pre­vent and Sup­press and Pun­ish Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Espe­cial­ly of Women and Chil­dren is the one com­mon­ly accept­ed. This Pro­to­col, as well as the Coun­cil of Europe’s Con­ven­tion on action against traf­fick­ing, sees it as a gross vio­la­tion of human rights and an offence against the dig­ni­ty of the human person.

While those who migrate to meet eco­nom­ic needs and those smug­gled or traf­ficked have many vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties in com­mon, there are impor­tant dif­fer­ences between migra­tion and human traf­fick­ing and smug­gling. Macro devel­op­ment poli­cies in fact often leave women in debt and unem­ployed. They migrate in order to live and to help their families/communities. In any case efforts to tack­le traf­fick­ing and smug­gling must not over­look the desire of women to migrate in order to improve their own lives and the ones of their fam­i­lies and children.

3. The Caus­es of Prostitution

In order to devel­op an effec­tive pas­toral response – the aim of this inter­na­tion­al meet­ing – it is impor­tant to know the fac­tors that push or pull women into pros­ti­tu­tion, the strate­gies used by pimps and exploiters to keep them under their con­trol, the pat­terns of move­ment from coun­tries of ori­gin to coun­tries of des­ti­na­tion and insti­tu­tion­al resources for address­ing needs. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and many NGOs through­out the world are increas­ing­ly seek­ing to tack­le crim­i­nal activ­i­ties and to pro­tect traf­ficked per­sons. They have devel­oped a wide vari­ety of inter­ven­tions with ref­er­ence to pre­ven­tion and rehabilitation.

4. Who is the victim?

She is a human being, in many cas­es cry­ing for help because sell­ing her body on the street is not what she would choose to do vol­un­tar­i­ly. She is torn apart, she is dead psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly. Each per­son has a dif­fer­ent sto­ry, main­ly one of vio­lence, abuse, mis­trust, low self esteem, fear, lack of oppor­tu­ni­ties. Each has expe­ri­enced deep wounds that need to be healed. What are they look­ing for? They seek rela­tion­ships, love, secu­ri­ty, affec­tion, affir­ma­tion, a bet­ter future for them­selves and for their fam­i­lies. They want to escape from pover­ty and lack of oppor­tu­ni­ties and to build a future.

5. Who Is The “Client”?

The “con­sumer“ has also deep-seat­ed prob­lems because he too, in a cer­tain sense, is enslaved. A large num­ber are over 40 years of age, but there is an increas­ing num­ber of younger men between 16–24 involved. It is clear from research that men increas­ing­ly seek out pros­ti­tutes for rea­sons of dom­i­na­tion rather than for sex­u­al grat­i­fi­ca­tion. In social and per­son­al rela­tion­ships they expe­ri­ence a loss of pow­er and of mas­culin­i­ty and are unable to devel­op rela­tion­ships of mutu­al­i­ty and respect. They seek out pros­ti­tutes because it gives them an expe­ri­ence of total dom­i­na­tion and con­trol of a woman for a spe­cif­ic peri­od of time.

The “client” needs more than social con­dem­na­tion and hav­ing to face the full rigours of the law. He must also be helped to face his deep­er prob­lems and to find oth­er ways of deal­ing with his per­son­al needs. Buy­ing sex from a pros­ti­tute does not solve prob­lems that arise from lone­li­ness, frus­tra­tion or a lack of true relationships.

6. Rela­tion­ships Between Men and Women

The rela­tion­ship between men and women is unequal because vio­lence or the threat of vio­lence give men priv­i­lege and pow­er and can make women silent and pas­sive. Women and chil­dren are often pushed out onto the street because of the vio­lence they expe­ri­ence from male mem­bers in the home who have inter­nal­ized the vio­lence embed­ded in ide­olo­gies and social struc­tures. Sad­ly women also par­tic­i­pate in oppres­sion and vio­lence towards oth­er women, and they are often found with­in crim­i­nal net­works con­nect­ed with the growth of prostitution.

Role of the Church

7. The Church has a pas­toral respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­mote the human dig­ni­ty of per­sons exploit­ed through pros­ti­tu­tion and to advo­cate for their lib­er­a­tion and eco­nom­ic, edu­ca­tion­al and for­ma­tive sup­port. The Church must take up the defence of the legit­i­mate rights of women.

8. In addi­tion to respond­ing to the pas­toral needs of the women of the street, the Church must prophet­i­cal­ly denounce the injus­tices and vio­lence per­pe­trat­ed against women wher­ev­er and in what­ev­er cir­cum­stances this may occur. The Church must invite also all men and women of good will to com­mit them­selves to sus­tain­ing human dig­ni­ty by putting an end to the sex­u­al exploitation.

9. There is a need for renewed sol­i­dar­i­ty in the Church and among reli­gious con­gre­ga­tions, lay move­ments, insti­tu­tions and asso­ci­a­tions in giv­ing greater “vis­i­bil­i­ty“ and atten­tion to the pas­toral care of women exploit­ed by  pros­ti­tu­tion, with­out for­get­tingthe good news of full lib­er­a­tion in Jesus Christ.

10. In attend­ing to the needs of women through­out the cen­turies, reli­gious con­gre­ga­tions of women espe­cial­ly have con­tin­u­al­ly con­sid­ered the signs of the times, dis­cov­er­ing the valid­i­ty and rel­e­vance of their charis­mas in many new social con­texts. Today women reli­gious world­wide through faith­ful reflec­tion on the Word of God and the social doc­trine of the Church seek new ways of giv­ing prophet­ic wit­ness to the dig­ni­ty of women. They do this by offer­ing a wide vari­ety of ser­vices in out­reach units, drop-in cen­tres, shel­ters and safe hous­es, train­ing and edu­ca­tion pro­grams to women of the streets. Mem­bers of con­tem­pla­tive orders show their sol­i­dar­i­ty, by pro­vid­ing sup­port through prayer and, when pos­si­ble, finan­cial assistance.

11. Train­ing pro­grammes for pas­toral agents are nec­es­sary to devel­op skills and    strate­gies in order to tack­le pros­ti­tu­tion and traf­fick­ing. These are impor­tant ways of engag­ing priests, reli­gious men and women and lay peo­ple in the pre­ven­tion and rein­te­gra­tion of vic­tims. Col­lab­o­ra­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion among church­es of ori­gin and des­ti­na­tion are seen to be essential.

GENERAL PROPOSITIONS

12. Church action to lib­er­ate women of the street

When tack­ling pros­ti­tu­tion, a mul­ti-dimen­sion­al approach is need­ed. It must involve both men and women in mutu­al trans­for­ma­tion, and human rights must be at the core of any strat­e­gy. All Chris­tians are called to be in sol­i­dar­i­ty with those trapped on the streets. In any case men have an impor­tant role to play in help­ing to achieve gen­der equal­i­ty in a con­text of reci­procity and just dif­fer­ences. The exploiters (gen­er­al­ly men) who are “clients”, traf­fick­ers, sex tourists, etc., need edu­ca­tion in both the hier­ar­chy of human val­ues and in human rights. They also need to hear a clear con­dem­na­tion of their evil and injus­tice by the Church if not by the State.

13. Role of the Epis­co­pal Conferences

The Epis­co­pal Con­fer­ences in coun­tries involved in pros­ti­tu­tion as fruit of human traf­fick­ing must assume the respon­si­bil­i­ty of denounc­ing this social scourge. There is a also a need to pro­mote respect, under­stand­ing, com­pas­sion and a non-judg­men­tal atti­tude towards women who have been caught in prostitution.

Priests and pas­toral agents have also to be encour­aged in fac­ing this slav­ery pastorally.

14. Role of Reli­gious congregations

Reli­gious con­gre­ga­tions must draw on the strength of their con­vic­tions and  join forces to inform, edu­cate and act. They should empha­size val­ues of mutu­al respect, healthy fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships and com­mu­ni­ty, togeth­er with the need for bal­ance and har­mo­ny in inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships among men and women. It is urgent that the var­i­ous projects spon­sored by reli­gious con­gre­ga­tions, which are aimed at assist­ing the repa­tri­a­tion and social rein­te­gra­tion of women who have been caught in pros­ti­tu­tion, also receive ade­quate finan­cial sup­port. Meet­ings of reli­gious asso­ci­a­tions work­ing in dif­fer­ent parts of the world to assist the women caught up in pros­ti­tu­tion are recommended.

The involve­ment and sup­port of the cler­gy is also impor­tant, both for the for­ma­tion of young peo­ple, espe­cial­ly of young males, and for the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of the “con­sumers” of the sex trade, among oth­er activities.

15. Col­lab­o­ra­tion

a) Full col­lab­o­ra­tion among pub­lic and pri­vate agen­cies is required if sex­u­al exploita­tion is to be obliterated.

b) It is also nec­es­sary to col­lab­o­rate with the mass media to ensure cor­rect com­mu­ni­ca­tion about this problem.

c) The Church must demand the enforce­ment of laws pro­tect­ing women against the scourge of pros­ti­tu­tion and traf­fick­ing. It is also impor­tant to advo­cate for effec­tive mea­sures against the demean­ing por­tray­al of women in advertising.

d) The Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty needs to be chal­lenged to work with nation­al and local author­i­ties to help find alter­na­tive resources to live for the women of the street.

16.   Deal­ing with the Vic­tims and the “Clients”

a) For the vic­tims the heal­ing process is long and dif­fi­cult. Vic­tims need to be helped to find a home, a fam­i­ly envi­ron­ment and a com­mu­ni­ty in which they feel accept­ed and loved and where they can begin to rebuild their lives and their futures. This will enable them to regain their self-esteem and trust, their joy in liv­ing and to start a new life with­out feel­ing stigmatised.

b) Lib­er­a­tion and rein­te­gra­tion require accep­tance and under­stand­ing from the com­mu­ni­ty. The heal­ing process is helped through gen­uine love and by the pro­vi­sion of dif­fer­ent oppor­tu­ni­ties that can help ful­fil the deep desires of young women who are search­ing for secu­ri­ty, affir­ma­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ties for a bet­ter life. The trea­sure of a faith (cfr Mt 6,21) which is alive, in spite of every­thing or redis­cov­ered, will help immense­ly as well as aware­ness of the love of God, mer­ci­ful and great in love.

c) The “clients” need both infor­ma­tion and for­ma­tion with regard to gen­der, respect, dig­ni­ty, inter-per­son­al val­ues and the whole area of rela­tion­ships and sex­u­al­i­ty. In a soci­ety where mon­ey and wealth are dom­i­nant val­ues, appro­pri­ate rela­tion­ships and sex­u­al­i­ty edu­ca­tion are nec­es­sary for the holis­tic for­ma­tion of dif­fer­ent groups of peo­ple. This type of edu­ca­tion can explore the true nature of inter-per­son­al rela­tion­ships based not on ego­is­tic inter­est or exploita­tion but on the dig­ni­ty of a human per­son, who should be respect­ed and appre­ci­at­ed as a God giv­en gift. In this con­text, believ­ers have to remem­ber that sin is an offence also to God, to be avoid­ed by all efforts, with the grace of the Lord.

17.   Edu­ca­tion and Research

a) With atten­tion to the tar­get group it is impor­tant to approach the prob­lems of pros­ti­tu­tion, with­out neglect­ing the Chris­t­ian vision of life, with youth groups in schools, parish­es, and fam­i­lies in order to devel­op cor­rect ideas about human rela­tion­ships, gen­der, respect, dig­ni­ty, human rights and sex­u­al­i­ty. Of course for­ma­tors and edu­ca­tors should take into account the cul­tur­al con­text in which they are work­ing. How­ev­er they should not allow a sense of embar­rass­ment to pre­vent them from engag­ing in appro­pri­ate dia­logue on these top­ics in order to cre­ate aware­ness and con­cern about the use and abuse of sex and love.

b) The link between vio­lence and “patri­archy” and the effect of both on women need to be explored and reflect­ed on at every lev­el of soci­ety, par­tic­u­lar­ly in terms of their effects on fam­i­ly life. The prac­ti­cal impli­ca­tions of inter­nal­ized vio­lence need to be clear­ly named in the case of both men and women.

c) The com­plex phe­nom­e­non of the fem­i­nine face of migra­tion needs to be stud­ied in a way that respects both women’s dig­ni­ty and their rights.

d) Edu­ca­tion and aware­ness rais­ing are vital in order to tack­le gen­der injus­tice and cre­ate gen­der equal­i­ty in a con­text of reci­procity and just dif­fer­ences. Both men and women need

  • to be made aware of how women are exploit­ed and
  • to know their rights and responsibilities.

e) Men in par­tic­u­lar need ini­tia­tives that focus on

  • vio­lence against women, sex­u­al­i­ty, HIV/AIDS, father­hood and families,
  • respect and care for women and girls, mutu­al­i­ty in rela­tion­ships, and
  • the exam­i­na­tion and cri­tique of tra­di­tion­al norms of manhood.

f) The Church needs to teach and spread its moral and social doc­trine, which gives clear guide­lines for behav­iour and calls for a com­mit­ment to work for jus­tice. Work­ing at var­i­ous lev­els for the lib­er­a­tion of women of the streets – at local, nation­al and inter­na­tion­al lev­els is an act of true Chris­t­ian dis­ci­ple­ship, an expres­sion of true, chris­t­ian love (cfr 1 Cor 13,3).

g) Devel­op­ing the chris­t­ian and social con­science of peo­ple through preach­ing the gospel of sal­va­tion, teach­ing and var­i­ous for­ma­tion ini­tia­tives is essential.

h) For­ma­tion for sem­i­nar­i­ans, young reli­gious men/women and priests is nec­es­sary so that they have the skills and atti­tudes nec­es­sary to work com­pas­sion­ate­ly also with women trapped in pros­ti­tu­tion and with their “clients.“

18.   Pro­vi­sion of Services

(a) The Church can offer a wide vari­ety of ser­vices to vic­tims of  pros­ti­tu­tion: shel­ters, refer­rals, health care, tele­phone hot­lines, legal assis­tance, coun­selling, voca­tion­al train­ing, edu­ca­tion, sub­stance reha­bil­i­ta­tion, advo­ca­cy and infor­ma­tion cam­paigns, pro­tec­tion against threats, links with fam­i­ly, assis­tance for vol­un­tary return and rein­te­gra­tion into their coun­try of ori­gin, assis­tance in obtain­ing a visa to remain when return is impos­si­ble. In any case the meet­ing with Jesus Christ, the good Samar­i­tan and sav­iour, is a very impor­tant fac­tor of lib­er­a­tion and redemp­tion also for the vic­tims of pros­ti­tu­tion (cfr At 2, 21; 4,12; Mc 16, 16; Rm 10,9; Fil 2, 11; 1 Ts 1, 9–10).

(b) Those who work direct­ly with women who have been traf­ficked for pros­ti­tu­tion   need to be espe­cial­ly skilled in deal­ing with them in order not to place them in danger.

©   Reach­ing out to women and girls of the street is a com­plex and demand­ing enter­prise. Pre­ven­tion and aware­ness rais­ing activ­i­ties need to hap­pen in coun­tries of ori­gin, tran­sit and des­ti­na­tion of traf­ficked women. Re-inte­gra­tion ini­tia­tives are impor­tant in coun­tries of ori­gin, if they return there. Advo­ca­cy and net­work­ing are also important.

(d)  The legal aspects of pros­ti­tu­tion and traf­fick­ing – pro­hi­bi­tion, reg­u­la­tion,   abo­li­tion – must be attend­ed to in every coun­try. Exam­ples of good   prac­tice should be shared (e.g. from Sweden).

(e) Planned Church projects that are mul­ti-dimen­sion­al would pro­vide vis­i­ble signs of dioce­san or parish con­cern and commitment.

FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS

As far as Bish­ops are concerned

19. Include the top­ics of sex­u­al exploita­tion, traf­fick­ing and smug­gling of  human beings in the ad lim­i­na visits.

20. Sug­gest that bish­ops encour­age pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of the human dig­ni­ty of women and minors in their pas­toral letters.

For local communities

21.There is a need for schools and parish­es to pro­vide edu­ca­tion and aware­ness pro­grams on sex­u­al­i­ty, mutu­al respect and healthy inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships, espe­cial­ly between men and women, in the light of the Word of God and of the moral teach­ing of the Church.

22. For­ma­tion and pro­fes­sion­al train­ing pro­grams for pas­toral agents must become part of the prepa­ra­tion for their ministry.

23. Net­works must be strength­ened among all groups involved in the pro­vi­sion of pas­toral care, e.g., vol­un­teers, asso­ci­a­tions, reli­gious con­gre­ga­tions, NGOs and ecu­meni­cal and inter-reli­gious groups.

As far as reli­gious congregations/diocesan clergy/national con­fer­ences of reli­gious are concerned 

24. Edu­ca­tion and aware­ness pro­grams regard­ing sex­u­al exploita­tion of women and minors should be pro­vid­ed in sem­i­nar­ies and in ini­tial and on-going for­ma­tion pro­grams of reli­gious con­gre­ga­tions, both of men and women.

25. Nation­al Con­fer­ences of Reli­gious are encour­aged to appoint a per­son to serve as a net­work­ing link with­in and beyond their coun­try, in this pas­toral sector.

For the soci­ety in general

26. The sex­u­al exploita­tion of women and minors is an issue for the entire soci­ety, not mere­ly for women.

27. There is a need to focus atten­tion on the “client” as an ele­ment of the con­sumer sys­tem under­ly­ing the sex trade.

28. It is impor­tant to use appro­pri­ate lan­guage and ter­mi­nol­o­gy when refer­ring to the phe­nom­e­na of sex­u­al exploita­tion and prostitution.

29. Soci­ety has a respon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­vide alter­na­tive resources to live for per­sons seek­ing to “leave the street”.