Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
0 Shares

LINK

In ear­ly March 2024, Catholic Sis­ters Week shines a light on the faith, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, mis­sion, and com­mu­ni­ty build­ing of women reli­gious inter­na­tion­al­ly. To rec­og­nize Catholic sis­ters, this dia­logue lift­ed up their crit­i­cal work to address and elim­i­nate human traf­fick­ing, which threat­ens the lives, dig­ni­ty, and hopes of so many vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple, espe­cial­ly women. Human traf­fick­ing is on the rise in many parts of the world, vic­tim­iz­ing over 25 mil­lion chil­dren and adults, with an esti­mat­ed 80% in forced labor and 20% in sex traf­fick­ing. Accord­ing to the Alliance to End Human Traf­fick­ing (for­mer­ly the U.S. Catholic Sis­ters Against Human Traf­fick­ing), human traf­fick­ing thrives because of a web of social injus­tice and human apa­thy. The Catholic Church pub­licly con­demns human traf­fick­ing while work­ing toward its elim­i­na­tion. Catholic sis­ters care for vic­tims and sur­vivors, seek to rebuild the lives of those affect­ed by it, and work for the elim­i­na­tion of human trafficking.

The Ini­tia­tive on Catholic Social Thought and Pub­lic Life and the Berkley Cen­ter for Reli­gion, Peace, and World Affairs at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty brought togeth­er four out­stand­ing lead­ers in this vital work to explore ques­tions such as:

  • What is human traf­fick­ing? How and why does it hap­pen? What do you find is often most mis­un­der­stood about human trafficking?
  • Why is address­ing human traf­fick­ing a pri­or­i­ty for your min­istry and the work of your com­mu­ni­ty? What do you do and why? How does your con­gre­ga­tion pro­vide sup­port to those who have been vic­tim­ized by trafficking?
  • How do you under­stand the ways in which your faith and the prin­ci­ples of Catholic social teach­ing call you and all of us to resist and oppose human trafficking?
  • How do we iden­ti­fy traf­fick­ing in our com­mu­ni­ties, and how do we respond to it?
  • What eco­nom­ic, social, or pol­i­cy fac­tors make human traf­fick­ing pos­si­ble? What needs to change to elim­i­nate those con­tribut­ing factors?

Kim­ber­ly Mazy­ck (SFS’90), asso­ciate direc­tor of the Ini­tia­tive, mod­er­at­ed the con­ver­sa­tion. Kim­ber­ly has served in key posi­tions at Catholic Relief Ser­vices, Catholic Char­i­ties USA, and the Sis­ters of Notre Dame de Namur East-West Province.

This Pub­lic Dia­logue was co-spon­sored by the Berkley Cen­ter for Reli­gion, Peace, and World Affairs.