The US Embassy to the Holy See and the Miami-based St Thomas University School of
Law hosted a conference on Wednesday on the global crime of human trafficking.
Focussing
on the need to redouble efforts to combat modern-day slavery, the conference brought
together delegates to discuss merging the resources of governments, civil society,
the private sector and faith-based communities in the most effective ways.
“Faith
propelling action against slavery. It’s as relevant against modern slavery as it
was in ancient times, or in the early years of the American experiment,” said Luis
CdeBaca, US Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons during
his keynote speech.
Speaking with Vatican Radio following his address, Ambassador
CdeBaca praised the work of the Catholic Church, saying that in the United States
the Church is active in administering victim service programmes of the US Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“But it’s not just doing the work with
HHS. Individual parishes, individual priests and nuns are working with trafficking
victims, working with the trafficking task forces,” Ambassador CdeBaca said.
Listen
to Ambassador Luis CdeBaca’s full interview with Kelsea Brennan-Wessels: