POPE FRANCIS
“Today I apologize to all of you. For all Christians, for all Catholics, who have abused you.”
Pope Francis' meeting with women freed from prostitution was one of the visits that moved him the most during the Jubilee of Mercy.
He recounts his experience in the prologue of this book, 'Donne Crocifisse,' or 'Crucified Women' written by Fr. Aldo Buonaiuto. In it, women who were victims of human trafficking talk about the torture to which they were subjected.
ALDO BUONAIUTO
Author, “Crucified Women”
'I heard with him the many tragedies of these women who cried and showed the pope torture, cruelty, severed ears, everything they suffered in the body. It was a very, very moving moment.”
Since the 1990s, Fr. Aldo Buonaiuto has traveled the streets to help women trapped in this modern slavery. He is part of the Pope John XXIII Community, founded by Fr. Oreste Benzi, who dedicated his life to those forgotten in the peripheries.
ALDO BUONAIUTO
Author, “Crucified Women”
“In them, I can see the wounds of the suffering, crucified Christ. Crucified also by indifference, by those who think these women should keep doing this and should lend themselves to millions of men.”
'We must awaken their consciences and say the client is co-responsible for this slavery and he is also a slaveholder along with the traffickers.'
The demand proves this exploitation of human beings is the third most lucrative illegal industry, only after arm and drug trafficking.
Fr. Buonaiuto insists that when one of these women is enslaved, on many occasions, so is her family.
ALDO BUONAIUTO
Author, “Crucified Women”
“Slavery mainly consists of reprisals, threats against their family members. So it's the chains, reprisals, the fear that their loved ones will be hurt. Family members are the reason these women leave, just to be able to raise and help their families.”
The book hopes to impact the conscience of modern man to combat prostitution, once and for all. Fr. Buonaiuto says the drama is 'the greatest injustice in the history of mankind.'
