The September 2023 edition of ONE magazine is a special issue on the pressing and ever-increasing social problem of human trafficking — what Pope Francis calls “a crime against humanity.”
As an agency of the Holy See, CNEWA has long supported church-run initiatives that seek to prevent trafficking among the most vulnerable, such as migrants, refugees, single mothers and children, and to help survivors heal and rebuild their lives. However, CNEWA for years has not spoken plainly or sufficiently about its work in this area — but that is changing with this edition of ONE.
This special issue highlights stories from our partners in the trenches, who work to prevent and raise awareness about human trafficking, and from trafficking survivors they have helped. Readers will:
- Learn about Armenian men labor trafficked in Russia and the wives and children they leave behind, equally vulnerable to exploitation.
- Hear from a trafficking survivor in Lebanon who rebuilt her life thanks to an anti-trafficking network of religious women in the Middle East.
- Discover how a Catholic charity in Poland works to protect Ukrainian refugees from falling prey to trafficking.
- Learn from a religious woman about the complexity of the global human trafficking network and of her advocacy work at the United Nations to abolish human trafficking.
- Grieve with a priest from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region for the young men and women who left to seek prosperity abroad, but instead were tortured or killed by traffickers.
ONE reveals these stories respectfully, but also forthrightly, having discerned that — as delicate and as difficult as this topic may be to so many of us — we can no longer remain discrete if we want to raise awareness about human trafficking and make an impactful contribution to its eradication.
These are stories of the church, tending to the suffering Body of Christ; these are the stories of CNEWA’s commitment to bring healing and hope to a suffering world.
We hope this special issue of ONE will provide information and perspectives our readers have not considered before and that, after reading this edition, will be moved to act and help.