Our Sr. Betsy Goodwin recently attended the fifth annual anti-trafficking symposium offered by the women religious of the Boston area. Sr. Joanne Gallagher, CSJ, director of communications for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, kindly shared the press release and the photos with us. An article was also published in The Pilot, the newspaper from the Archdiocese of Boston .
On Saturday, May 5, over 225 participants gathered for a symposium on consumerism and the many faces of human trafficking. This was the fifth such event offered by the Boston Unit of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) Anti-Trafficking Coalition since 2008. The Mission Statement of the coalition states its commitment to
¶ raise awareness through education,
¶ collaborate with others to ensure necessary services with compassion,
¶ advocate for justice,
¶ pray for victims and all affected by human trafficking.
Topics have ranged from an introduction to human trafficking globally, nationally, and locally; to looking at what one person can do; to the latest topic of how our buying power as consumers can become a tool for addressing human trafficking.
Most Americans wonder if there is really anything they can do to combat the crime of human trafficking. This question was addressed as participants watched a brief YouTube video titled Where Am I Wearing? by Kelsey Timmerman. As the morning progressed, presenters continued to address the way all of us are inadvertently complicit in human trafficking by the products we use every day.
Fr. David Couturier, OFM Cap., past president of Franciscans International, a NGO at the United Nations. and former director of pastoral planning for the Archdiocese of Boston, was the first keynote speaker. Fr. David has written and lectured extensively on social forces impinging on contemporary secular and religious culture. In addressing the group on consumerism and the supply chains of human trafficking, he asked, “What can we do?” and offered a concrete action.
“We must,” he said, “undertake an examination of consciousness when it comes to corporate human trafficking:
¶ Do I care whether the products I buy or use are tainted with human slavery?
¶ Are the price, convenience, and availability of goods more important to me than the possibility that those goods might be the result of slave labor?
¶ How much time and effort am I willing to invest in determining whether a product is the result of trafficked labor?
¶ How willing am I to make this problem of human trafficking personal?
¶ How willing am I to work with others to eradicate slave labor from my home and dinner table?’
The second keynote presenter was Kate Price of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at Wellesley College (See photo at top of page) . Kate, a social scientist specializing in the cultural constructions of childhood, brought a rich background to the symposium. As a survivor of childhood sexual exploitation and a living example of resilience and strength, she now uses her personal experience to inform and educate others. Kate spoke about buying power and how consumerism and the sexualization of children put all children at risk. She offered very ordinary everyday examples of ways in which cultural images create a demand for goods and services connected to human trafficking.
Toward end of the symposium, Kathy McCluskey, CSJ, former executive director of the U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, summarized the work of the collaborative efforts of the federation to address human trafficking as it exists in hotels throughout our country. Karen McLaughlin, a major architect of the Massachusetts Anti-Trafficking Law passed in November 2011, thanked the coalition for their advocacy and persistence in making this law a reality.
Women religious congregations in the greater Boston area have been offering educational opportunities on the issue of human trafficking since 2008. In May 2009 they issued a statement against human trafficking which in part states: Today women religious all over the world are addressing the crime of human trafficking. Our religious congregations have NGO representatives at the United Nations who address the issue at a global level. We women religious leaders in the greater Boston area are committed to speak out locally because we are human beings, because we are women, because we are women religious with a history of Catholic social teaching, and because we live and work in the Boston area where the trafficking trade is a real though hidden crime.
What the Boston Anti-Trafficking Coalition has learned over the past few years is that human trafficking is an evil that must be eradicated and despite the many challenges to achieve this, silence is not an option.
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| Sr. Betsy Goodwin addresses attendees at the Boston-area trafficking symposium. Fr. Davis Couturier, OFM Cap., explained how consumerism supports the supply chains of trafficking. |















