In yet another sign of his strong stance against human trafficking, Pope Francis made a surprise visit to 20 women who have been rescued from sexual slavery. The pope met with the women on Aug. 12 at a refugee center in Rome, the Pope John XXIII community, which houses people rescued from prostitution. The visit was one of the regular gestures Francis has made to highlight the Jubilee Year of Mercy, which runs through 2016. The Vatican said in a statement that the women were from a range of countries, including Romania, Albania, Nigeria, Tunisia and Ukraine, as well as Italy. All suffered severe physical abuse during their ordeals and are living under protection, the Vatican press office said. The statement said the pope’s visit was another reminder of the urgent need to combat human trafficking. Francis has been particularly outspoken against trafficking and slavery, calling it “a crime against humanity” and “an open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ.”
Pope Francis Meets Rescued Women
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In this episode of Inside the Vatican, Colleen Dulle and Gerard O’Connell discuss the 2025 Jubilee Year, beginning on Christmas Eve 2024 and ending in January 2026.
Pope Francis prayed that the Jubilee Year may become “a season of hope” and reconciliation in a world at war and suffering humanitarian crises as he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.
‘If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever!’
Inspired by his friend and mentor Henri Nouwen, Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., invites listeners in his Christmas Eve homily to approach the manger with renewed awe and openness.