Global prayer marathon to mark world day of prayer against trafficking

February 5, 2021 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Credit: siam.pukkato/Shutterstock.

CNA Staff, Feb 5, 2021 / 04:20 am (CNA).- Catholics across the globe will take part in an online prayer marathon on Monday marking the world day of prayer against trafficking.

The prayer will span time zones from Oceania to the Americas on Feb. 8, the International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking, and the liturgical memorial of St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947), patron saint of human trafficking survivors.

The seven-hour global prayer marathon will be broadcast via live-stream with translations in five languages, including English. The broadcast will include a message from Pope Francis, who instituted the annual day of prayer in 2015.

At a U.S. Embassy to the Holy See event in October, experts reported that online exploitation of victims of human trafficking has increased amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Valiant Richey, Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), argued that a failure to address human trafficking during the pandemic would “risk turning this very serious public health crisis into a human trafficking crisis.”

“The storm clouds are brewing on this and we can see it coming,” he said.

Organizers are encouraging Catholics to pray for an “economy without human trafficking” and to support the day on social media using the official hashtag #PrayAgainstTrafficking.

The prayer event is organized by the international committee that promotes the world day of prayer. The committee is coordinated by Talitha Kum, the network of consecrated life against human trafficking of the International Union of Superiors General, with the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Service to Integral Human Development, Caritas Internationalis, the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations, the Focolare Movement, and grassroots groups.

Gabriella Bottani, the coordinator of Talitha Kum, said: “With ‘The Economy of Francesco,’ the Holy Father has asked the Church to stop and reflect on the dominant economic model and to find alternative paths.”

“We found ourselves perfectly in tune since the trafficking of people is an integral part of an economy of exclusion, where the rules of the market are destroying the fundamental values of human coexistence, based on respect for dignity but also on the protection of the environment.”

“The dominant economic model is one of the main structural causes of human trafficking in our globalized world. Through this day, let us trace together a path of reflection for an economy that promotes life and dignified work for all.”

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Polish bishops pledge greater sensitivity for abuse victims

May 24, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Warsaw, Poland, May 24, 2019 / 11:34 am (CNA).- The bishops of Poland are speaking out against sexual abuse, pledging to continue to “eliminate factors conducive to crime” as well as to adopt a more sensitive attitude toward victims than in the past.

“We admit that as shepherds of the Church we have not done everything to prevent these harms,” the bishop’s conference of Poland wrote in a May 22 letter to be read at Masses May 26.

“For many believers, especially for young people sincerely seeking God, sexual scandals involving clergy become a hard test of faith and a reason for great scandal. Disappointment and indignation is all the bigger and more painful that children, instead of caring love and accompaniment in seeking the nearness of Jesus, experienced violence and brutal depravation [sic] of the dignity of the child.”

The bishops’ May 22 letter was prompted, in part, by a documentary released on YouTube earlier this month which presents allegations that abusive priests were shifted between parishes, and shows people confronting elderly priests alleged to have abused them as children. The film has nearly 21 million views.

The motion picture has prompted a nationak conversation in Poland, with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling Law and Justice party, promising harsher punishment for child abusers in reaction to the film, floating the idea of 30-year prison sentences.

“The film, taking into account the perspective of the victims, made us all aware of the magnitude of their suffering,” the bishops wrote.

“Anyone who is sensitive, learning the fate of the victims, experiences pain, emotion and sadness for their suffering. We thank to everyone who had the courage to tell about their suffering. We are aware of the fact that no word is able to reward them for the harms they have suffered.”

A study commissioned by the Polish bishops’ conference and released this March revealed nearly 400 Polish priests were accused of sexual abuse of more than 600 people from 1990 until 2018. Just over half of reported victims were under the age of 15. Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, called the report’s findings “tragic.”

The bishops urged victims of abuse by clergy to report their experience to both Church and state authorities, and a delegate has been appointed for each Polish diocese and most religious provinces to receive reports of abuse and “to help in obtaining psychological, legal and pastoral support.”

The bishops also stressed a need for greater sensitivity for victims and their suffering, citing lessons they learned from hearing the confessions of victims, whom they said need “great sensitivity and support to find the balance of life.”

They expressed support for Pope Francis’ May 7 motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi, which mandates the reporting of sexual abuse and provides for punishment for Church authories who fail to do so. The motu proprio also puts the metropolitan archbishop in charge of investigations of accusations against suffragan bishops.

The bishops also laid out some of the measures they are taking in Poland to address the problem of abuse, including abuse prevention training programs for dioceses and religious congregations.

“Let us not let the good, that is done in the Church through their ministry, be obscured by the sins of particular persons,” the bishops urged.

“On the principle of collective responsibility, let us not also convey the guilt of particular people in cassocks to all priests. These people committed these acts and they should be punished for their actions. Let us support in these difficult times the priests who work with sacrifice so that they don’t lose their enthusiasm and receive encouragement from the lay faithful.”

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1 Comment

  1. Thus wrote Mahatma Gandhi: “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart”.

    Reply

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