(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) says it’s outrageous that there is no shared EU responsibility for the refugees trying to reach Italy. The Academy also said there is an urgent need to set up a world anti-trafficking agency. The comments came at a press conference held in the Vatican by leading members of PASS at the end of their 5-day plenary meeting whose theme was “Human Trafficking: Issues Beyond Criminalization.
Human trafficking is a huge global phenomenon that is worth a staggering 150 billion dollars and experts say the age of the trafficked victims is getting younger and younger. The President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences is Margaret Archer who told journalists that the PASS members discussed how to prevent the crime of human trafficking, by tackling the twin issues of supply and demand for sex workers and forced labour. She spoke to Susy Hodges.
Listen to the interview with Professor Margaret Archer, President of PASS:
Asked about what steps need to be taken to reduce demand for prostitutes and forced labourers, Archer said there’s a need to embark on a process in which the clients of brothels and the companies using forced labour become socially stigmatized by harnessing the power of the social media such as Facebook to spread messages against these practices, especially among the young and students in schools. She compared it to the successful actions which have been taken against smokers and especially the ban on smoking in public places over the past decades which have led to a sweeping change in behaviour.
“We can send out messages that using prostitutes isn’t cool and…. that “it messes up your cool image.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis today said that “ours is a Church of martyrs”.
Speaking during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta the Pope recalled the many Christians who are currently being persecuted and killed for their faith.
Drawing inspiration from the First Reading of the Act of the Apostles which tells of the stoning and martyrdom of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, the Pope remembered “our brothers whose throats have been slit on the beaches of Libya”, he spoke of “the young boy who was burnt alive by his companions because he was Christian”, he recalled “the migrants who were thrown from their boat into open sea” because, they too, were Christians.
Martyrs – Pope Francis said – do not need “other bread”, their only bread is Jesus, and Stephen – he explained – did not have the need to negotiate or find a compromise with those who put him to death.
And reflecting on the reading the Pope pointed out that Stephen’s witness was such that his persecutors ‘covered their ears and rushed upon him together.’
Just like Jesus – he explained – Stephen had to deal with false witnesses and the anger of the people. Stephen – he said – reminded the elders and the scribes that their ancestors had persecuted other prophets for having been true to God’s Word, and when he described his vision of the heavens opening “and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” they did not want to listen but threw him out of the city and began to stone him:
“God’s Word is always rejected by some. God’s Word is inconvenient when you have a stone heart, when you have a pagan heart, because God’s Word asks you to go ahead trying to satisfy your hunger with the bread which Jesus spoke of. In the history of the Revelation many martyrs have been killed for their faith and loyalty towards God’s Word, God’s Truth”.
Pope Francis continued comparing the martyrdom of Stephen to that of Jesus: he too “died with that Christian magnanimity of forgiveness, praying for his enemies’.
And those who persecuted the prophets – the Pope pointed out – believed they were giving glory to God; they thought they were being true to God’s doctrine.
“Today – the Pope said – I would like to remember that the true history of the Church is that of the Saints and the martyrs,” of so many who were persecuted and killed by those who thought they possessed the ‘truth’- whose heart was corrupted by ‘truth’:
“In these days how many Stephens there are in the world! Let us think of our brothers whose throats were slit on the beach in Libya; let’s think of the young boy who was burnt alive by his companions because he was a Christian; let us think of those migrants thrown from their boat into the open sea by other migrants because they were Christians; let us think – just the day before yesterday – of those Ethiopians assassinated because they were Christians… and of many others. Many others of whom we do not even know and who are suffering in jails because they are Christians… The Church today is a Church of martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive the blessing of God for their witness”.
The Pope also pointed out that there are also many “hidden martyrs: those men and women who are faithful to the voice of the Spirit and who are searching for new ways and paths to help their brothers better love God”.
He said they are often viewed with suspicion, vilified and persecuted by so many modern ‘Sanhedrins’ who think they are the possessors of truth.
(from Vatican Radio)…
In a message sent to H.H. Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Pope Francis expressed “consternation and sorrow” for the countless events of “shocking violence perpetrated against innocent Christians in Libya”, following the dissemination of a video which showed the barbaric killing of 28 Ethiopian Coptic Christians. “I know that your Holiness…
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In a message sent to H.H. Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Pope Francis expressed “consternation and sorrow” for the countless events of “shocking violence perpetrated against innocent Christians in Libya”, following the dissemination of a video which showed the barbaric killing of 28 Ethiopian Coptic Christians. “I know that your Holiness…
Read more
In a message sent to H.H.
Abune
Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo
Church, Pope Francis expressed “consternation and sorrow” for the countless
events of “shocking violence perpetrated against innocent Christians in Libya”,
following the dissemination of a video which showed the barbaric killing of 28
Ethiopian Coptic Christians. “I know that your
Holiness is suffering deeply in heart and mind, in view of your faithful,
killed for the sole reason of being followers of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. I address my heartfelt spiritual solidarity to you, to assure you of my
closeness in prayer amid the ongoing martyrdom being inflicted in so cruel a
manner upon Christians in Africa, in the Middle East and in some regions of
Asia”, Francis wrote. “It makes no
difference”, he continued, “whether the victims are Catholic, Copt, Orthodox or
Protestant. Their blood is one and the same in their confession of Christ! The
blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to
make itself heard by all those who still know how to distinguish between good
and evil”. And this cry, he added, “must be heard above all by those who hold
the fate of the peoples in their hands” Recalling that “in this period we are filled with the
Easter joy of the disciples to whom the women hastened to proclaim that “Christ
has risen from the dead”, the Pontiff acknowledged that “this year, our joy,
which never fails, is eclipsed by profound sadness”. Yet, he affirmed “we know
that the life we live in the merciful love of God is stronger than the sorrow
that all Christians are feeling, a sorrow shared by men and women of good will
in all religious traditions. During the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on Tuesday morning, 21 April, Pope
Francisrepeated that “today the Church
is the Church of martyrs”, addressing a thought to “the Ethiopians assassinated
for being Christians” and to all believers who in various parts of the world
are victims of violence and persecution. Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of
the Congregation for the Eastern Churches also spoke of “martyrs”, condemning
themost recent event of chilling
jihadist violence….