Human trafficking victims are ‘women crucified’, says Pope

The Pope has called on individuals and
institutions to play their part in ridding the
world of the “disgusting vice” of human
trafficking and prostitution.
He called the sex trade a “disease of
humanity” as he described the “humiliated,
afflicted and suffering women” he had met
in a house run by the Pope John XXIII
Community for victims of human
trafficking.

The comments were made in his foreward
to a new book on the subject, Women
crucified: The shame of human trafficking as
told from the street , written by Fr Aldo
Buonaiuto, who is a priest in the Pope John
XXIII Community.
He said that the women he met at the
home were “truly, women crucified … some
of them with their child in their arms”.

He recalled how, following the visit, he had
felt the need to “ask forgiveness for the
real tortures they had to endure because of
their clients, many of whom call
themselves Christian”.

He praised the rescue and rehabilitation
work being done by Fr Aldo, as well as his
new book, saying it was necessary to tell
the stories behind the “shocking numbers”
of people being trafficked into the sex
trade for “illegal and shameful profit”.
“A person can never be offered for sale,”
he wrote, adding that the sex trade was
“torturing” defenceless women.
He concluded with a call for individual and
corporate action.

“Individuals and institutions cannot remain
indifferent before their cry of pain,” he
said. “No one should turn away or wash
their hands of the innocent blood that is
shed on the roads of the world”.