JusticeAlert - February 1

Thursday, February 8 is the feast day of Josephine Bakhita. Josephine was born in Sudan in 1869, enslaved as a child, and sold to an Italian diplomat. Years later she was brought to freedom through the Canossian Daughters of Charity and later became part of their community. In 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized her.  He said that her life is an inspiration to all who work for the freedom of girls and women who experience violence and oppression and the slavery of human trafficking—until all reach their full human dignity and live in freedom.  

Attached are petitions that you may use in prayer.  

Prayer of the Faithful 

The response is: Gracious God, hear our prayer.

For Pope Francis, all bishops and church leaders that God may gift them with deep wisdom as they call the Church to struggle against the evil of human trafficking, we pray 

For policy makers, that God grants them the wisdom to enact laws that provide greater protection for victims and survivors of human trafficking, we pray 

For everyone who is trapped in a situation of slavery, that God will help to liberate them from their chains, we pray 

For perpetrators of slavery, that they repent of their evil ways and turn to God for forgiveness, we pray 

For our neighbors, coworkers, friends, fellow Christians, and all people, that they may increase in their awareness of the problem of human trafficking and become a voice in the public square calling for its abolition, we pray

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A toolkit for observing this feast can be found on the Become a Shepherd page on USCCB’s International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking.

The photo above contains the information to join a webinar on what parishes around the country are doing to combat human trafficking