International Day of Prayer and Awareness
Against Human Trafficking
February 8, 2022 is the Eighth International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.
Each year, an estimated 17,000 vulnerable men, women and children are trafficked across our borders and then forced into slavery. Many are fleeing terrible situations in their home countries and come to the United States to find a better life. Unfortunately, the nightmare often begins when they reach our shores.
For over a decade, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been a national leader in advocacy and education to eradicate sex and labor trafficking. The USCCB’s initiatives include advocacy, awareness raising, training and technical assistance, and integration services. Their Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) leads efforts to combat trafficking in human persons. The USCCBs' Anti-Trafficking Program aims to educate on the scourge of human trafficking as an offense against the fundamental dignity of the human person, to advocate for its end, and to provide training and technical assistance to support survivors.
“The Catholic Church intends to intervene in every phase of the trafficking of human beings; she wants to protect them from deception and solicitation; she wants to find them and free them when they are transported and reduced to slavery; she wants to assist them once they are freed.” - Pope Francis’ Address to Participants in the World Day of Prayer, Reflection and Action Against Human Trafficking, 2018
February 8 is also the Feast of St Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese nun, who as a child had the traumatic experience of being a victim of human trafficking. Through prayer, we can accompany victims of human trafficking in their healing processes. Let us ask this through the intercession of St. Josephine Bakhita.
Prayer to St. Josephine Bakhita
St. Josephine Bakhita, you were sold into slavery as a child and endured untold hardship and suffering. Once liberated from your physical enslavement, you found true redemption in your encounter with Christ and his Church.
O St. Bakhita, assist all those who are trapped in a state of slavery;
Intercede with God on their behalf so that they will be released
from their chains of captivity.
Those whom man enslaves, let God set free. Provide comfort to survivors of slavery and let them look to you as an example of hope and faith.
Help all survivors find healing from their wounds. We ask for your prayers and intercessions for those enslaved among us. Amen.
St. Josephine Bakhita, pray for us!
~St. Luke Life, Justice and Peace Ministry
