“The Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary stand in support of human rights by opposing human trafficking (children, women and men) for the purpose of sexual exploitation and any other form of slavery.
We will educate ourselves and others regarding the magnitude, causes and consequences of this abuse, wherever we are missioned and throughout the world.
Through our Office of Global Mission, Justice and Peace and our other justice efforts, and in collaboration with other religious congregations, advocacy groups, and nongovernmental organizations, we will advocate for policies and programs that address the prevention of the trafficking of children, women and men.” - December 2008
Global Mission Justice and Peace thank the Adrian Dominican Sophia Mission Group in the Seattle area for
all of their hard work on this corporate stance and generating an abundance of resources.
Rationale
We believe that:
- Slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, and disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of gain rather than free responsible persons (are) infamies which poison human society, debase their perpetrators and constitute a supreme dishonor to the Creator (Text is drawn from Gaudium et Spes, 27; Second Vatican Council).
- “All human beings are clothed in the same personal dignity. For this reason they must be respected, and no reason can ever justify their being used at whim, as if they were objects” (Pope Benedict XVI, January 1, 2007).
- Every person is precious and people are more important than things. The measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person. (Text is drawn from Life and Dignity of the Human Person: Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions [Washington, DC: USCCB, 1998] and Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility [Washington, DC: USCCB, 2003].)
- The Church has a pastoral responsibility to promote the human dignity of persons exploited through prostitution and to advocate for their liberation and economic, educational, and formative support. The Church must take up the defense of the legitimate rights of women, children and men. (Text is drawn from International Meeting on the Pastoral Care of Women of the Street, Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrant and Itinerant Peoples, 2005).
Resources
Links
| Stop Trafficking! |
A Monthly Newsletter on Human Trafficking which we are proud to co-sponsor. |
| Stop Demand Foundation |
Stop Demand's vision is for a world free of sexual violence, sexual exploitation and sexual denigration. |
Related Issues
Immigration
Immigration and immigration reform are two of the most high profile issues of our day. Immigration and human trafficking are intimately related. In many cases, citizens of developing countries try to find greater opportunities in the industrial nations and are lured into slavery by individuals and organizations that they wrongly believe will help them. Without ways to pursue legal aid, or amnesty, these trafficked humans find themselves at a dead end.
Link
Adrian Dominican Sisters' Immigration Justice Initiative
Labor
At a point in history when we have a global economy, we examine the relationships between free-trade agreements, sweatshop labor abroad, trade deficits, sandbagging against organized labor domestically, and the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to countries with lower standard of labor rights (child labor, working conditions, hours, and wages).
In omnipresent injustice, we look for justice through equitable relationships in trade. The Adrian Dominican Sisters are proud to have taken a bold first step in serving fair-trade coffee campus wide at the Motherhouse in Adrian.
Links