By Chris Sparks
Every year, millions of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers in their own countries and abroad. No sector or industry is immune from human trafficking
— United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
For all that we live in a society that likes to imagine we’ve moved well beyond the age of slavery, for far too many people, that’s not the case. The International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking on Feb. 8 offers a timely and vital wake-up call.
Alarming statistics
The International Labour Organization (ILO) and Walk Free Foundation’s “Global Estimate of Modern Slavery” (2016) provides alarming statistics on the prevalence of human trafficking worldwide:
• 25% of all victims are children age 17 or younger, representing 10 million girls and boys worldwide
• Nearly 30% of all victims are men and boys; jumping to 46% for victims of forced labor
• Of the 24.9 million victims of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation, nearly 1 of 4 were exploited outside their home country
• For every 1,000 people across the world in 2016, 5.4 were victims of human trafficking
Even one person enslaved is far too many.
Some of our brethren are called to fight this scourge directly through activism, journalism, law enforcement work, or other means connected to their professions. For those who are able and feel called to take on the terrible scourge of human trafficking as activists, the USCCB has resources and recommendations.
Power of prayer
But many of us are not physically capable of taking such a task on. Others of us are in professions that seem to have nothing to do with directly fighting this terrible scourge. Many of us may feel helpless, powerless in the face of such evil to do anything real to stop it. But prayer has real consequences in the world! Father Donald Calloway, MIC, has gathered into one place many, many stories of the Rosary’s power to transform the world for the better in his book Champions of the Rosary. He speaks of the Rosary as a spiritual weapon, following the example of popes and saints, and as a “lightsaber” with which we can fight the darkness of sin, death, and hell.
So it’s appropriate as we approach Feb. 8 that we take up our Rosaries and include an end to the evil scourge of human trafficking as one of our prayer intentions.
Prayer is powerful! No matter what, we are all capable of prayer. Jesus gave St. Faustina a reassurance to pass on to us:
[W]rite this for the many souls who are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1317).
St. Josephine Bakhita
February 8 is also the Feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, a holy consecrated religious woman (ca. 1869-1947). Kidnapped and enslaved as a child, she suffered in slavery for decades until she found freedom when she was brought to Italy and entered the Catholic Church. She stayed with the Canossian Sisters, whose congregation she eventually entered. For 50 years, she lived and served as a consecrated religious. It’s appropriate that we ask her intercession for all those who today are likewise kidnapped and enslaved, likewise sold and exploited, and likewise who need the freedom that true justice and Divine Mercy bring, both physical and spiritual.
Let us also ask for the conversion and repentance of all those who kidnap and enslave others. Let us ask Our Lady, Mother of Mercy and Refuge of Sinners, to obtain the transformation of their hearts and lives. Let us pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, begging God’s mercy on their behalf, since, as St. John Paul II told us, “[T]he limit imposed upon evil, of which man is both perpetrator and victim, is ultimately the Divine Mercy.”
Let us trust that Jesus cares about all those suffering kidnapping and enslavement even more than we do. Let us remember that our intercession is powerful and matters, and that God, the Creator and Defender of free will, often waits to be invited into human history before He intervenes with His full power.
So let us open the door to grace changing the world. Let us take part in the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking, and include an end to this terrible evil in our daily Rosaries and Chaplets going forward.
Saint Josephine Bakhita, pray for us!
Images: Detail of the St. Josephine Bakhita window at St. John Paul II Chapel at Mundelein Seminary; Karine Avetisyan on Unsplash.
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