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Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery where traffickers use force, fraud, coercion, or drugs to exploit human persons for commercial sex, labor, and even organs. Women, men, and children around the world and here in New Hampshire currently are victims of human trafficking.Victims come from a wide range of social, racial, and economic backgrounds, but poverty, civil unrest, and migration make individuals particularly vulnerable to this form of exploitation.
The Catholic faith teaches that each and every person is made to the image and likeness of God and, therefore, has infinite value and worth. We are called to recognize this sacredness in every human person. The crime of human trafficking - the buying and selling of human persons as if objects of merchandise – is a grave violation of human dignity. The Church works to end human trafficking and to minister to those who have suffered from its evils.
Educational Bulletins:
What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Human Trafficking
Testimony:
HB 576 - Human Trafficking/Victims Compensation Fund - March 8, 2022
HB 1263 - Compensation Fund Claims By Victims of Human Trafficking - February 18, 2020
Read more about it:
USCCB, “On Human Trafficking,”
Resources:
Vatican II, Gaudium et spes (December 7, 1965). | En español.
Pope Francis, “Address to Participants in the International Conference on Combating Human Trafficking” (April 10, 2014). | En español.
Pope Saint John Paul II, “Twenty-First Century Slavery—The Human Rights Dimension to Trafficking in Human Beings,” May 15, 2002. | En español.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2297, 2414, 2455. | En español.
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 158.| En español.
Vatican Migrants & Refugees Section, Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking
USCCB Committee on Migration, “Statement on Human Trafficking,” December 2007
United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, 327, 427.
Other Resources:
USCCB on Human Trafficking
Catholic Relief Services on Human Trafficking
Organizations with Human Trafficking Websites:
