VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis calls prostitution “a repugnant vice” in the preface of a new book about the victims of human trafficking.
The Holy Father wrote the preface of the book Crucified Women: The Shame of Trafficking Told from the Street, by Father Aldo Buonaiuto, a priest of the Pope John XXIII Community.
The Pope John XXIII Community Association is an international organization of faithful of pontifical right founded in 1968. Since then, it has specifically and continually committed to the fight against marginalization and poverty.
In a press release published on the occasion of the book’s going on sale, Giovanni Paolo Ramonda, the community’s president, said the battle against prostitution was started by Father Oreste Benzi 30 years ago when he met a prostitute in the Rimini station and learned about the abuse that prostitution entails.
Ramonda thanked the Holy Father “for giving, once again, a significant sign of closeness to the struggle against this modern slavery” and the book’s author Father Aldo “who, following Father Benzi’s steps, has rescued on the street and received these very young former slaves of trafficking.”
In the preface, the Pope says “Any form of prostitution is a reduction to slavery, a criminal act, a repugnant vice that confuses making love with venting one’s instincts by torturing a defenseless woman.”
The exploitation of women as though they were merchandise to be used and then discarded “is an illness of humanity, an erroneous way of thinking of society. To free these poor slaves is a gesture of mercy and a duty for all men of goodwill. Their cry of pain cannot leave individuals or institutions indifferent. No one must look the other way or wash his hands of the innocent blood that is shed in the roads of the world.”
Zenit with B.C. Catholic files
