Pope Francis met with members of the Santa Marta Group, an agency that joins police officials and bishops from 30 countries, to combat human trafficking together. It's an original synergy that aims to address causes as well as effects of this crime.
There are an estimated 40 million people living in conditions of slavery, those exploited in exchange for little or no money. This exploitation can take many forms including; forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced criminality and organ harvesting.
The Holy Father told the committee the blight is more prevalent than it appears and called for society as a whole to examine its conscience.
POPE FRANCIS
“To examine seriously the various forms of complicity by which society tolerates, and encourages, particularly with regard to the sex trade, the exploitation of vulnerable men, women and children.”
“Responsible use of technology and the communications media, to say nothing of exploring the ethical implications of models of economic growth that privilege profit over persons.”
Pope Francis also asked attendees to urge financial and business institutions to do all they can to eliminate slavery and its profits from their transactions.
A concrete proposal was that businesses assure their suppliers do not benefit from slave labor during the production of their goods.
