Human Trafficking

1. LEARN MORE -->  Schedule a presentation or training for your church/group/CYO -- contact our Archdiocesan Human Trafficking Committee

2. JOIN OUR PRAYER TEAM -->  Under Her Mantle 

3. TALK ABOUT IT -->  Share what you know with others

4. Participate in our annual DAY OF AWARENESS & PRAYER AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING 

5. Download TraffickCam & use this when you stay in a hotel/motel room.  Your room photos are uploaded to a database to help law enforcement locate traffic victims.

6. PARTICIPATE IN OUR PARTNER PROJECT -->
We are continuting to assist a local safe house, the Free Indeed Home, where girls ages 12-17 who have been sex trafficked can come for healing & restoration. 

 If you or your group would like to participate in any way, please email the Respect Life Office.  

A reflection on our local ministry of presence Street Team

You Are L.O.V.E.D. - a retreat for girls at the local safe house

• Do you suspect someone is being trafficked? Read potential warning signs here

• End Slavery - Vatican anti-trafficking information

• National Human Trafficking Hotline -- 888-3737-888 or  Text "BEFREE" -24/7 toll-free to report suspected human trafficking
• US State Department 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report
• US Government Human Trafficking Multi-Department Response
• Polaris Project
• USCCB Anti-Trafficking Program
• US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking
• Shared Hope International 
• Who are the buyers?  Read the Minnesota study

• Louisiana Laws related to Human Trafficking
• Louisiana Coalition Against Human Trafficking
• Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services 2019 Human Trafficking Report

• Archdiocesan Human Trafficking Committee 
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans - TVAP info
• Greater New Orleans Human Trafficking Task Force 

• Schedule a 10-15 minute basic presentation on Human Trafficking - topics below
• Show the Human Trafficking Awareness video above

• 10 Ways Parents Can Prevent & Identify Human Trafficking 

• Human Trafficking: the FBI Perspective
• Shining a Light on Technology-Facilitated Exploitation
• Caring for Survivors: Freedom in Jesus
• Human Trafficking: A Global Issue
• The Pope Video - Child Soldiers
• Human Trafficking Awareness -Archdiocese of New Orleans

• Identifying Victims of Human Trafficking: Potential Indicators & Red Flags
• National Human Trafficking Hotline Help Poster 
• Polaris Project 2017 Human Trafficking Statistics
• 10 Ways Parents Can Prevent & Identify Human Trafficking
• Email the Respect LIfe Office for our Archdiocesan Human Trafficking Committee brochure
• St. Josephine Bakhita prayer card

• "Invisible in Plain Sight: Human Trafficking in our Midst" 
• "Invisible in Plain Sight: Human Trafficking in our Midst" -- for youth groups
• "Invisible in Plain Sight: Human Trafficking in our Midst" -- for parents
• "Human Trafficking Risk Assessment for Healthcare Providers"
• Human Trafficking: Red Flags & Reporting -- training 

• See the weekly Respect Life Update & join in the collection of items needed for one of our local service providers
• Consider becoming a volunteer with one of our service providers below under Pastoral Care
• Contact our Archdiocesan Human Trafficking Committee to learn more about how you can help
•  

• SpeakHope in the greater New Orleans area
• Free Indeed Home -- a safe home at an undisclosed location in the Greater New Orleans area dedicated to the rehabilitation of minor female victims of sex trafficking and/or sexual exploitation
• Baptist Friendship House — transitional housing & assistance to women who are survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation
• To help local service providers with specific needs, email the Respect Life Office for details.
• USCCB resource for pornography -- Create in Me a Clean Heart:  A Pastoral Response to Pornography
• My House Men’s Group – Confidential 12 Step Program for men struggling with pornography – email or call 504-430-3060
• Pearl Ladies' Group -- Confidential Catholic support group for women whose husbands struggle with pornography or sexual addition -- email or call 504-343-3359
• Create a Clean Heart- Archdiocese of New Orleans resource guide to combat pornography with tools for parents, educators, those in ministry, & those struggling with pornography

• for a victim of human trafficking
• Praying the Stations of the Cross for Victims of Human Trafficking (USCCB)
• St. Josephine Bakhita, our patroness

SORROWFUL MYSTERIES for VICTIMS, SURVIVORS, and PERPETRATORS of HUMAN TRAFFICKING

We pray for all life, from conception until death, especially the most vulnerable, and in this month of February, we pray in a special way for all victims, survivors and perpetrators of human trafficking.

1^st Sorrowful Mystery - AGONY in the GARDEN

As Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, He sees the suffering of all those with whom He will unite Himself. He asks us to awaken to the suffering of our many sisters and brothers who have been trafficked for sex and for labor, including many children in our own country, state, and even our city.

2^nd Sorrowful Mystery - The SCOURGING at the PILLAR

Christ is chained to a pillar and flogged until his entire body is covered with deep wounds.  When the dignity our sisters and brothers is insulted in sex or labor trafficking, it is Jesus the Suffering Servant who is scourged again and again.  

3^rd Sorrowful Mystery - THE CROWNING with THORNS

In the Praetorium, Jesus is mocked, spat upon and crowned with thorns.  Perpetrators of human trafficking mock and spit upon the gift of human dignity given to each and every person, including themselves. 

4^th Sorrowful Mystery - The CARRYING of the CROSS

With His body battered and bruised from torture, Jesus carried the cross along the road to Calvary.  When a person is trafficked and exploited, systematically and repeatedly, their body AND spirit become abused and defiled. 

5^th Sorrowful Mystery - The CRUCIFIXION

On Golgotha, the hands and feet of Jesus are nailed to a cross, and His side is pierced with a lance. Unlike morally acceptable, lawful organ donations, it is a sin when body parts are forcibly taken from victims who are trafficked, and possibly killed in the process.  
 

Novena for an End to Human Trafficking in our World:

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“2414 The seventh commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason - selfish or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian - lead to the enslavement of human beings, to their being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, in disregard for their personal dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value or to a source of profit. St. Paul directed a Christian master to treat his Christian slave "no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, . . . both in the flesh and in the Lord."

From the USCCB’s Information Sheet:

“Human trafficking is a horrific crime against the fundamental rights and dignity of the human person. The United Nations Protocol on Human Trafficking defines it as the recruitment, transportation, harboring or receipt of persons by means of force, fraud or coercion.

Human trafficking will never be truly defeated without eliminating the consumerism that feeds it and prosecuting those actors in receiving countries, including our own, that benefit because of the exploitation of vulnerable human beings....

Human trafficking is a horrific crime against the basic dignity and rights of the human person. All efforts must be expended to end it. In the end, we must work together—Church, state, and community—to eliminate the root causes and markets that permit traffickers to flourish; to make whole the survivors of this crime; and to ensure that, one day soon, trafficking in human persons vanishes from the face of the earth.”