“The Sisters are always there”

Given the magnitude of the issues facing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious during its recent annual assembly Aug. 7-10 …

Given the amazing presence and presentation of keynote speaker Barbara Marx Hubbard…

Given the inspiring presidential address offered to 900 members of the conference who responded with a sustained (and sustaining) standing ovation …

“Force the dawn to be born by believing in it.”
From the presidential address of Sister Pat Farrell, OSF.

Given all of this, the lingering image in my mind as I reflect on being part of what everybody called an historic assembly is that of a young woman speaking to us during an optional session on the last day of the conference. (Optional meant that only about 850 of the 900 attendees were there.)

Katie was actually part of a three-person panel, sponsored by one of the LCWR regions about human trafficking. (Fortunately, we didn’t only talk about the CDF mandate!) Although the other two persons on the panel were equally compelling in their remarks, it was something about Katie’s tears — the spontaneity of them, the sincerity of them.

Referring to us as both “sisters” and “you guys,” this young woman shared her story of the web of drugs and stripping and prostitution and trafficking in which she had been entangled for a significant part of her young life.

The good news is that Katie is now free of that web and is caught up in creating new life for other victims through something she has named the Healing Action Network in St. Louis. And as she faces new challenges she told us, “the sisters are always there.”
These sisters do not belong to just one congregation, but come from various orders and comprise a sisterhood, I believe, that now extends beyond the boundaries of congregations and regions.

That’s what LCWR has become for me — a sisterhood — a sisterhood that desires always to be there with Katie and others like her in greatest need of healing action, with each other around the tables of our lives and with our brother bishops in dialogue for the sake of the fresh in-breaking of the reign of God.


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At the annual assembly of the Leadeship Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in St. Louis Aug. 7-10, more than 900 participants, including the Sisters of Providence General Officers, gathered for sustained prayer and dialogue, to consider various responses to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) report, with the goal of deciding together the next best steps for the conference following the assembly.

The address of outgoing LCWR President Sister Pat Farrell, OSF, provides insights to the content and spirit of the gathering, as does the press release issued by LCWR on Friday, Aug. 10.

Theresa's story

Theresa Flores, human trafficking
survivor and victim's advocate, spoke at
the Sisters of Providence Women in
Leadership luncheon on March 7.

Each year the Sisters of Providence sponsor a Women in Leadership luncheon. We invite women in the Wabash Valley who work in profit and not-for-profit organizations. The event consists of a lovely meal and an inspirational speaker.

Last Wednesday, Theresa Flores was our speaker. She shared with us her story as a survivor of human trafficking. Ms. Flores’ story broke every stereotype I held of a trafficked girl/woman.

Theresa told of growing up in a devout Irish Catholic family. Her parents were active in their parish, loving toward their children. Their lifestyle was, in her words, “more than comfortable.” Her father worked for a corporation that moved him (therefore the family) every two years to another Midwestern city. It was this constant movement that made Theresa the “perfect victim” of a trafficker.

At 15 years of age, without a group of friends who had known her for long, with no extended family nearby, she was susceptible to the advances of a young man who paid a great deal of attention to her. Finally, he invited her to his home, drugged and raped her and took photos of the act. These photos kept her enslaved to this man. He would pick her up nightly to “service” (the expression used by those who traffick women) 10 to 15 men a night. He returned her to her home at 2 or 3 a.m.; she would sleep a couple of hours and then go to school. Her parents never knew any of this until Theresa finally had the opportunity and courage to escape.

Freed from this bondage, Theresa experienced “a call from God” to educate others to the realities of human trafficking within each of our US cities and towns and to work to liberate these modern day slaves of human greed.

A licensed social worker, she is the director of training and education at Gracehaven House as a refuge for adolescent girls freed from trafficking. She initiated SOAP – Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution. This organization places bars of soap in hotel and motel bathrooms. The soap wrapper lists a 24-hour free 1-800 number for a girl to call to be rescued by local police authorities and SOAP volunteers.

To read more about Theresa Flores or to engage her as a speaker, go to http://www.traffickfree.com/. She has written a compelling book – "The Slave Across the Street."

If you are like I was — unaware of how close in proximity I am to adolescent girls being victimized and abused — check out Theresa Flores and her story.

The season for greater prayer, fasting and almsgiving

You might ask, what does Lent have in common with human trafficking? Quite a bit!

This is the season for greater prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Almsgiving, in the broadest sense, has to do with bettering the lives of others.

Macy's is currently being petitioned to sign on to the No
Dirty Gold Campaign.

Embracing this third traditional pillar of Lent signifies our care for those in need and is an expression of our gratitude for all God has given to us.

Works of charity and the promotion of justice are integral elements of the practice of almsgiving.

This third practice offers a wide range of possibilities for those who have made a commitment to ending human trafficking. Here is one possibility. One effort underway is to end the deadly effects of gold extraction processes which can pollute the air, water and soil, affecting the nervous and digestive systems when inhaled.

For example, in the last six months, more than 400 children under the age of 5 have died as a result of environmental contamination caused by gold extraction in Nigeria.

Learn more about the innocent victims of gold extraction processes by going to care2.com to sign petitions promoting an end to what is called “dirty gold” and encouraging the “Golden Rule” for Responsible Gold. Macy’s is currently being petitioned to sign on.

How many slaves work for you?

Somewhere in these early days of Lent somebody said, “Lent is not about you; it is about your right relationships with others, with the world.”

Thinking about the relationships of my life could keep me very busy during these 40 days of Lent, but my relationships with the world and with the peoples of the world will surely take me a lifetime.

So, as is my practice, I looked for something concrete to do or, more importantly, someone concrete to think and pray about. That led me to the Slavery Footprint.  

If you have been following the recent justice activity of the Sisters of Providence, you know that we have tried to raise consciousness about the issue of human trafficking. Our proximity to Indianapolis and the Super Bowl brought home the reality that one of the major ways that human trafficking occurs in our country is at major sporting events. However, this is only one aspect of the human trafficking problem.

Forms of slavery in the 21st Century. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

There are 27 million people around the world who are forced to work without pay and unable to walk away. Forced labor most often happens to those made vulnerable by high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict or cultural acceptance.

This, too, is human trafficking and, unlike the sexual exploitation of women and children, this is a kind of slavery in which I do participate. 

The Slavery Footprint helped me identify how my own patterns of living and buying enslave people around the world. It was pretty sobering to find out how many slaves work for me.

Fortunately, the Slavery Footprint organization provides positive steps to help raise awareness, the kind of awareness that can lead to change. They even offer a blog of their own about actions to take during Lent against slavery.

I don’t expect to be able to eliminate all the slaves in my life by Easter, but I do hope that my new found awareness will help free some of them.

Human trafficking bill signed into law

Sister Donna Butler was one of many Sisters of Providence who were involved in offering teachable moments on the issue of human trafficking prior to the recent Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, Ind. She organized an online petition to help bring attention to Indiana Senate Bill 4, which enhances penalties for persons involved in promoting human trafficking.

The bill was signed into law prior to the heaviest crowds arriving for traditional Super Bowl parties and activities.

Now, Sister Donna has provided an update on the implementation of the new law and she also offers continuing educational information about actions available to individuals or groups. You can find her blog post and the dozens and dozens of comments posted on it here.

St. Josephine Bakhita: A Super Bowl MVP

A grassroots movement is under way to
designate St. Josephine Bakhita as the
patron saint for human trafficking victims.

The proximity of this year’s Super Bowl to the heart of our community here at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods has made us painfully aware of the issue of human trafficking.

It is a sad fact that one of the major ways that human trafficking occurs in our country is at major sporting events where hundreds, in some case, thousands of women, children and teens are brought in as sex slaves for human traffickers.

Our efforts to create awareness around this issue have led us to the discovery of St. Josephine Bakhita who, at the age of 7, was kidnapped from her home in the Sudan and over the next eight years was sold and resold into slavery five times.

During her captivity, she endured debilitating beatings and bodily mutilation. She was finally taken to Italy where she served as a nanny to the daughter of her final owner. It was there she met the Canossian sisters.

Her release from bondage mirrors many of the same ingredients necessary today to help victims of human trafficking. When Bakhita made it clear she did not wish to leave Italy with her “owner,” the Canossian sisters appealed to the authorities on her behalf. The court ruled in Bakhita’s favor, and she found herself in control of her destiny for the first time in her life.

At the time of her canonization in 2000, Pope John Paul II said, “In St. Josephine Bakhita we find a shining advocate of genuine emancipation. The history of her life inspires not passive acceptance but the firm resolve to work effectively to free girls and women from oppression and violence, and to return to them their dignity in the full exercise of their rights.”

In these days before the Super Bowl we are praying to St. Josephine Bakhita for that same resolve. Please join in that prayer:

Creator of us all, our words cannot express what our minds can barely comprehend and our hearts feel when we hear of children and adults deceived and transported to unknown places for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor because of human greed.

Our hearts are saddened and our spirits angry that their dignity and rights are being transgressed through threats, deception and force. We cry out against the degrading practice of trafficking and seek ways for it to end.

Strengthen the fragile-spirited and broken-hearted. Make real your promises to fill these our sisters and brothers with a love that is tender and good and send the exploiters away empty-handed. Give us the wisdom and courage to stand in solidarity with them, that together we will find ways to the freedom that is your gift to all of us. Amen.

— Gen Cassani, SSND, (Used with permission.)