“I do not call you slaves any longer,
because the slave does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends,
because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” (John 15:15)
February 4, 2025
Hello Everyone –
Next Saturday (February 8), as Church, we keep the memory of St. Josephine Bakhita (c. 1869-1947). Josephine, the first Sudanese saint, was kidnapped as a child by slave traders. Sold to a number of owners by age twelve, she was finally purchased by an Italian consul and brought to Italy. There she was Baptized, and, when acquiring the age of majority, was granted her freedom by Italian law. Little did her original captors realize that when naming her “Bakhita,” which means “lucky one,” she would find her freedom in a distant land which would set her on a course to holiness and eventually the dignity of the altar.
In 1896, Josephine joined the Canossian Daughters of Charity, and for 50 years served her fellow sisters as cook, seamstress and portress in their houses in several Italian cities. She was especially beloved by her students for her gentle nature regardless of the obstacles that were set in her path. After a long and painful illness, Sr. Josephine was finally freed from her earthly chains in 1947. St. John Paul II canonized her on October 1, 2000, and called her a witness to evangelical reconciliation and a model of freedom.
Here in Milwaukee, the St. Bakhita Catholic Worker House provides a supportive community for women survivors escaping human trafficking.
In addition to being St. Josephine Bakhita’s feast day, next Saturday is also the World Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.
The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of a person by means of force, fraud, or coercion for reasons of labor and exploitation. No sector or industry is immune from human trafficking. Victims may be workers in food processing factories, waiters or cooks at restaurants, construction workers, agricultural laborers, fishers, housekeeping staff at hotels, domestic help in private residences, or as sex-trafficked women and men in brothels, spas, and massage parlors. Through coercion, deceit, or force, men, women, and children become trapped in jobs and situations from which they cannot escape.
It is often mistakenly assumed that trafficking only impacts certain types of individuals, such as those living in abject poverty with little to no access to education. To be clear, there is no “typical” profile. Anyone can become a victim regardless of sex, age, race, citizen status, socioeconomic level, or educational attainment. Understanding that no one is immune to victimization empowers each of us to take an active role in bringing to an end this scourge upon our sisters and brothers.
Human trafficking violates the sanctity, dignity, and fundamental rights of the human person. In a letter addressed to an international conference on the subject of trafficking, St. John Paul II stated, “The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offence against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights.” The saintly pope went on to say, “In particular, the sexual exploitation of women and children is a particularly repugnant aspect of this trade and must be recognized as an intrinsic violation of human dignity and rights” (May 15, 2002).
As Catholics – alongside all people of goodwill – we are called upon to take up the task of confronting this darkness that continues to manifest itself in the society in which we live. We must not only work to better inform ourselves concerning this afront to the Creator whose image and likeness we bear but also to work at educating others.
Consider visiting www.usccb.org/stopslavery as one way of growing in knowledge.
And may we all turn to St. Josephine Bakhita asking for her heavenly intercession on behalf of the millions of men, women, and children trapped in a destructive cycle of exploitation.
As I do for you, please pray for me,
Most Reverend Jeffrey S. Grob
Archbishop of Milwaukee
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