Mexican bishops: Do not grow indifferent to the plague of human trafficking

August 1, 2019 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Mexico City, Mexico, Aug 1, 2019 / 02:57 pm (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Mexico encouraged the faithful in the country not to become indifferent to the suffering of human trafficking victims, but to take action to fight corruption and exploitation.

“We cannot accept exploitation, we cannot grow accustomed to the suffering. Let us denounce exploitation! Because as long as human trafficking remains hidden, the traffickers will continue to act with impunity,” the Mexican Bishops’ Conference said in a statement on its website.

The statement, released for World Day Against Human Trafficking on July 31, asked Catholics to pray for those who are suffering exploitation and to boldly “denounce corruption and complicity.”

“Let us pray on this day for those suffering from this exploitation that cries to heaven and let us ask ourselves: ‘What can I do? What is up to me to do?’ God and the Blessed Virgin Mary will accompany our efforts,” the bishops said.

Trafficking has many forms, the Catholic bishops said, including prostitution, slavery, forced servitude, organ removal, forced marriage, and illegal adoption. They noted that the majority of trafficking victims – some 70% are women and girls, who are mainly trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Human trafficking empowers other human rights violations, they added, contributing to poverty, discrimination and violence.

It is important for people to know the signs of human trafficking, in order to identify and report cases of it, the Mexican bishops said.

While the Mexican state has voiced its commitment to fighting human trafficking through prevention, protection and prosecution, the bishops said a coordinated response is needed, with collaboration among churches, the media, businesses, and other leaders of civil society.

Catholics must not be indifferent to this “open sore” in society, they stressed, but should be aware of the phenomenon “and how it operates in order to be able to intervene.”

The bishops of Mexico thanked movements within the Church that fight human trafficking and aid its victims. They particularly mentioned Talitha Kum, a network led by religious sisters who have served 10,000 trafficking survivors in 77 countries. The sisters accompany victims to shelters and aid them as they return home.

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Elderly women wield canes to beat back priest attacker in Canada

March 27, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Edmonton, Canada, Mar 27, 2019 / 01:11 pm (CNA).- Police are investigating an incident in Edmonton, Canada, after a posse of elderly women beat back a priest attacker with their walking canes.

It was after evening Mass at Our Lady Queen of Poland parish on March 13, and Father Marcin Mironiuk was outside saying goodbye to parishioners when a young man, roughly 25 years old, approached the priest.

Fr. Mironiuk, who did not recognize the man, reportedly asked him if he spoke Polish. The man said no and reportedly rushed the priest, according to authorities.

Lorraine Turchansky, a spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton, told Global News Canada that the man threw the priest to the ground and started choking him with his hands when the elderly women who were also leaving Mass came to his defense.

“They were quite perturbed by this and shocked, really,” Turchansky said.

“They were older women so they’re not the kind of people who would whip out a cellphone and take a video or call 911. They did what they could and they had canes. They started striking the guy with their canes.”

When the women tried to pull the stranger off the priest, he fled the scene, Turchansky told Global News.

Turchansky said that Fr. Mironiuk was “certainly traumatized” by the incident and spent that night with friends, rather than alone in his rectory. He was otherwise “totally recovered.”

CBC News reported that police are investigating the incident, and that the suspect has been described by authorities as a 25 year-old white man with short, dark hair, who smelled of alcohol at the time of the incident.

The attack is one of a series of priest attacks or incidents in Canada. On March 22, several days after the incident in Edmonton, 77 year-old Fr. Claude Grou of St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal was stabbed by an attacker who rushed him during morning Mass.

Grou has since been released from the hospital, is making a good recovery and is “eager” to return to work.

CBC News reported that just two days later, Vermillion priest Father Roger Rouleau experienced a “scare,” when a man rushed the altar at a morning Mass.

“He pushed him up on the altar, and in that case, Father Rouleau couldn’t help but think about what happened in that horrific attack in Montreal at St. Joseph’s Oratory,” Turchansky told CBC News.

But it turned out the man “just wanted a hug,” Tuchansky said.

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