(Vatican Radio) On January 1, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, Pope Francis celebrated Solemn Mass in the Basilica of Saint Peter. Below, please find the complete text of the Pope’s homily for the Mass: Today we are reminded of the words of blessing which Elizabeth spoke to the Virgin Mary: “Blessed are…
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Today, 1 January 2015, people all over the world are celebrating the New Year. However, 1st January is also designated as, ‘World Day of Peace.’ This year, Pope Francis has a special message which resonates with Africa: “No Longer Slaves But Brothers and Sisters.”
Pope Francis uses the letter of St. Paul to Philemon to launch his message on the meaning of true brotherhood and sisterhood. Modern day slavery goes against the notion of fraternity. In his homily this morning, the Pope prayed and re-echoed his message when he said, “All of us are called to be free, all are called to be sons and daughters and each, according to his or her own responsibilities, is called to combat modern forms of enslavement. From every people, culture and religion, let us join our forces,” Said Pope Francis.
Human trafficking is referred to as modern day slavery. It may be in the shadows but its presence cannot be ignored.
It is clear Pope Francis has in mind the many migrants who are lured from developing countries to Europe or to the Middle East with promises of fake jobs. Many of Africa’s young women and men have been lied to and have found themselves trafficked, trapped and enslaved. The women and girls are ensnared and are forced into prostitution or traded as sex slaves. In many cases, the traffickers are known and trusted persons or even relatives.
No doubt the Holy Father is also thinking of those who are held in what has come to be known as debt bondage. A person becomes a bonded labourer when they are forced to work as a means of repayment for a loan.
Experts say that traffickers always find a way of making those trafficked perpetually indebted to them. First, one is offered a job somewhere abroad as a model or in construction work. The person offered the so-called job usually has no money to cover travel; pay the fee to the one who has found the ‘job;’ subsistence money and several other payments. It usually then falls upon the family to borrow the money from the same traffickers. When the victims reach their destination they often discover, to their dismay, that there is no job as a model or college for further education. They are then forced to work on agricultural plantations or in factories for many hours in horrible conditions. This is always disguised as paying-off the “debts owed.” Unfortunately the value of the work becomes greater than the original amount borrowed. In these cases, the debt is never fully paid. The debt is even passed on to the next generation. Various forms of force are used to make the victims stay and continue to work. In most cases the victims are under armed guard or are locked-up in a place of work. Sometimes, they live with the threat of violence to their families back home should they not comply.
Pope Francis puts it succinctly when he says, “I think also of the living conditions of many migrants who, in their dramatic odyssey, experience hunger, are deprived of freedom, robbed of their possessions, or undergo physical and sexual abuse. In a particular way, I think of those among them who, upon arriving at their destination after a gruelling journey marked by fear and insecurity, are detained in at times inhumane conditions. I think of those among them, who for different social, political and economic reasons, are forced to live clandestinely. My thoughts also turn to those who, in order to remain within the law, agree to disgraceful living and working conditions, especially in those cases where the laws of a nation create or permit a structural dependency of migrant workers on their employers, as, for example, when the legality of their residency is made dependent on their labour contract. Yes, I am thinking of ‘slave labour.’”
Slave labour arises from circumstances of abduction, kidnapping, child-marriage, domestic work and so on. Increasingly more and more people are being trafficked from developing countries for body parts where vital organs (heart, liver, kidneys etc.) are “harvested” from them against their consent.
There have been recent calls on the Church in Africa to work closely with governments to ensure that programmes of service delivery are responding to the needs and aspirations of the people. This is because poverty is the major cause of human trafficking. Greed and patriarchal attitudes also play a big role.
For a start, in Africa, there is need to create greater awareness for the problem. What Africa also needs most is a network of information through research and data collection that will clearly show the magnitude of the problem of human trafficking on the continent.
Fortunately Dioceses in Africa and religious congregations are starting to embrace human trafficking as an important apostolate. Many Church justice and peace projects, in Africa, are now being directed towards this noble cause. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is one such organisation pioneering work in this area and a potential partner for the Church.
Nevertheless much more can and needs to be done. In the words of Pope Francis, individuals and nations should end indifference and tolerance of human trafficking.
(Fr. Paul Samasumo)
e-mail: engafrica@vatiradio.va
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On January 1, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, Pope Francis celebrated Solemn Mass in the Basilica of Saint Peter.
Below, please find the complete text of the Pope’s homily for the Mass:
Today we are reminded of the words of blessing which Elizabeth spoke to the Virgin Mary : “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (Lk 1:42-43).
This blessing is in continuity with the priestly blessing which God had given to Moses to be passed on to Aaron and to all the people: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Num 6:24-26). In celebrating the Solemnity of Mary the Most Holy Mother of God, the Church reminds us that Mary, more than anyone else, received this blessing. In her the blessing finds fulfilment, for no other creature has ever seen God’s face shine upon it as did Mary. She gave a human face to the eternal Word, so that all of us can contemplate him.
In addition to contemplating God’s face, we can also praise him and glorify him, like the shepherds who came away from Bethlehem with a song of thanksgiving after seeing the Child and his young mother (cf. Lk 2:16). The two were together, just as they were together at Calvary, because Christ and his mother are inseparable : there is a very close relationship between them, as there is between every child and his or her mother. The flesh ( caro ) of Christ – which, as Tertullian says, is the hinge ( cardo ) of our salvation – was knit together in the womb of Mary (cf. Ps 139:13). This inseparability is also clear from the fact that Mary, chosen beforehand to be the Mother of the Redeemer, shared intimately in his entire mission, remaining at her Son’s side to the end on Calvary.
Mary is so closely united to Jesus because she received from him the knowledge of the heart, the knowledge of faith, nourished by her experience as a mother and by her close relationship with her Son. The Blessed Virgin is the woman of faith who made room for God in her heart and in her plans; she is the believer capable of perceiving in the gift of her Son the coming of that “fullness of time”(Gal 4:4) in which God, by choosing the humble path of human existence, entered personally into the history of salvation. That is why Jesus cannot be understood without his Mother.
Likewise inseparable are Christ and the Church; the salvation accomplished by Jesus cannot be understood without appreciating the motherhood of the Church. To separate Jesus from the Church would introduce an “absurd dichotomy”, as Blessed Paul VI wrote (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 16). It is not possible “to love Christ but without the Church, to listen to Christ but not the Church, to belong to Christ but outside the Church” (ibid.). For the Church is herself God’s great family, which brings Christ to us. Our faith is not an abstract doctrine or philosophy, but a vital and full relationship with a person: Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God who became man, was put to death, rose from the dead to save us, and is now living in our midst. Where can we encounter him? We encounter him in the Church. It is the Church which says today: “Behold the Lamb of God”; it is the Church, which proclaims him; it is in the Church that Jesus continues to accomplish his acts of grace which are the sacraments.
This, the Church’s activity and mission, is an expression of her motherhood. For she is like a mother who tenderly holds Jesus and gives him to everyone with joy and generosity. No manifestation of Christ, even the most mystical, can ever be detached from the flesh and blood of the Church, from the historical concreteness of the Body of Christ. Without the Church, Jesus Christ ends up as an idea, a moral teaching, a feeling. Without the Church, our relationship with Christ would be at the mercy of our imagination, our interpretations, our moods.
Dear brothers and sisters! Jesus Christ is the blessing for every man and woman, and for all of humanity. The Church, in giving us Jesus, offers us the fullness of the Lord’s blessing. This is precisely the mission of the people of God: to spread to all peoples God’s blessing made flesh in Jesus Christ. And Mary, the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus, the model of the pilgrim Church, is the one who opens the way to the Church’s motherhood and constantly sustains her maternal mission to all mankind. Mary’s tactful maternal witness has accompanied the Church from the beginning. She, the Mother of God, is also the Mother of the Church, and through the Church, the mother of all men and women, and of every people.
May this gentle and loving Mother obtain for us the Lord’s blessing upon the entire human family. On this, the World Day of Peace, we especially implore her intercession that the Lord may grant peace in our day ; peace in hearts, peace in families, peace among the nations. The message for the Day of Peace this year is “ No Longer Slaves, but Brothers and Sisters ”. All of us are called to be free, all are called to be sons and daughters, and each, according to his or her own responsibilities, is called to combat modern forms of enslavement. From every people, culture and religion, let us join our forces. May he guide and sustain us, who, in order to make us all brothers and sisters, became our servant.
(from Vatican Radio)…