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Mailing Address: PO Box 575
860.658.7627
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February 2, 2022This week in our Church’s liturgical calendar we meet a recently (1992) canonized saint, St. Josephine Bakhita.
As her biography tells us, she was born in Africa, in Darfur, Sudan, ironically four years after the conclusion of the Civil War here in the States which was fought to abolish slavery. Unfortunately, the slave trade persisted in other parts of the world and she was kidnapped at the age of 7 and sold into slavery numerous times. Her final owner, the Italian consul serving in Khartoum, gave her to his friend, Augusto Michieli, to serve as a nanny for his daughter, traveling with her to Venice, Italy where the daughter attended a school run by the Canossian Sisters. When the Michielis wanted to return to Africa and take Josephine with them, the Italian courts ruled that since slavery was illegal in Italy, Josephine actually was freed the moment she set foot on Italian soil in 1885, and thus did not have to return with them as a slave!
Josephine Bakhita’s story, sadly is repeated over and over again even today, and even in our country where slavery has been abolished officially for more than 150 years now. Called by a different name, “human trafficking,” this modern day slavery is carried out covertly with few in society aware of it. It is lucrative because human trafficking generates $150 billion each year worldwide.
Young people, often homeless or at-risk youth, from our own communities are often seduced online or in person with promises of money and gifts. Then they are “kidnapped” through threats by their captors to work as prostitutes at places like truck stops or filmed for still and video pornography. Others who are vulnerable to human trafficking, are those from foreign countries seeking a better life here, who are lured by promises of work and given the gift of passage to the United States, only to find themselves trapped by those who offered them passage. They often work in forced labor situations as domestics, hotel workers, the sex trade, in nail/salon businesses, massage parlors, and in the garment industry. Their captors hold them against their will by confiscating their identification papers and remain their only source of food and shelter.
This is, of course, an affront to our Catholic belief in the sacredness of human life and the dignity of every human person. Pope Francis describes human trafficking as one of the most dramatic manifestations of ‘commercialization of the other’, a crime against humanity. In its many forms, it constitutes a wound in the body of contemporary humanity. Trafficking disfigures the humanity of the victim, offending the person’s freedom and dignity”.For more information on human trafficking, presentations and prayer resources, visit:
If you suspect trafficking you can report it anonymously by calling the National Hotline at (888) 373-7888 or Text “Help” or “info” to 233733 (Be Free).
St. Bakhita’s feast day (Feb 8) is the International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking. Let us take some time that day to reflect on and pray for an end to this crime against humanity.
