Vatican announces a Day of Prayer against human trafficking
Building on one of Pope Francis’ top social and political priorities, the Vatican has presented plans for a first-ever “International Day of Prayer and Reflection against Human Trafficking” to be held Feb. 8. 
Trafficking in human beings is an illegal industry estimated to affect 36 million people around the world and to generate $150 billion in annual profits. It’s been a matter of concern for Francis from his time in Argentina, and has emerged as a core preoccupation of his papacy.
Strikingly, the prayer day announced in Tuesday’s news conference will bring together several Vatican departments as well as the main umbrella groups for women and men in religious orders, since those congregations have long been on the front lines of the anti-trafficking fight.
Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the prayer day is a mobilization on a global scale.
“Our awareness must expand and extend to the very depths of this evil and its farthest reaches,” Turkson said, “from awareness to prayer … from prayer to solidarity … and from solidarity to concerted action, until slavery and trafficking are no more.”
The date for the initiative is the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, considered a patron saint for trafficking victims. Born in 1868 in Darfur, Sudan, she was kidnapped at the age of nine and sold into slavery, first in her country and later in Italy. She died in 1947 and was declared a saint by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000.
“To understand what it means to human trafficking, we must meet the victims, listen to them, look them in the eyes, embrace them.”
“Let’s go even further [than praying],” Pool said. “Let’s all of us together do more against this evil.”
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