Catholic News 2

Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 30, 2017 / 01:12 pm (CNA).- “I knew my life wasn’t normal,” Duñia Zelaya said of her childhood. She vividly remembers the night her mother and stepfather dressed her in strange clothes and did her makeup before driving her to a bar to work as a sex slave. She can’t remember her age, but she was probably 7.

Her mother gave her a drink to “give her courage.” Her two sisters, who were older though still minors, were dropped off first and then she was left at a bar where a man was waiting for her.

On Jan. 14, Zelaya shared her story during the L.A. Freedom Walk at Blessed Sacrament Church in Los Angeles. She finally left the life of prostitution three years ago.

Born into poverty and living as the child of immigrants, Zelaya endured the misery of prostitution for years. She was hungry for real love. “I noticed how all the other kids, their parents used to hug them and kiss them and I use to say, ‘I want that,’” she recalled.

Her mother’s affection varied with the cash flow, she explained. “When I made more money than my sisters, that was the only time I was shown a little bit of love.”

Zelaya spoke to the hundreds of protesters who gathered in the early morning hours to help raise awareness — and reaffirm the promise — that sex and labor trafficking will soon end.

The Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST) organized the event. The nonprofit organization, based in Los Angeles, advocates on behalf of victims of sex and labor trafficking and provides services for rehabilitating victims.

The month of January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and Pope Francis continues to condemn the practice that keeps an estimated 30 million people enslaved. In December 2014, he called human trafficking — which includes forced labor, prostitution and organ trafficking — “a crime against humanity.”

Bishan Kumar also spoke at the Jan. 14 event, sharing the story of years of humiliation and abuse as a labor slave.

A registered pharmacist in India, Kumar had come to the United States to study. One school had accepted him, claiming to be accredited and hiring professors from Stanford and UC Berkley. He paid his tuition fees and waited for classes to begin.

“The classes never began,” he said. Instead, one of the professors put him to work at a rate of $10 per hour. But she never paid him. She demanded that he work 12 to 14 hours a day, including weekends and holidays. She told him to create fraudulent documents, wash dishes and set up workstations.

“There were times when I couldn’t fall asleep because of the body pains and the psychological trauma,” he said.

She threatened to terminate his student visa if he didn’t listen to her. “In fact, I would see her terminating other students’ immigration statuses, so I was always frightened.” Kumar added, “She used to yell at me all the time and treat me like a slave.”

Homeland Security finally caught up with her, sentencing her to 20 years in jail — a verdict that made the audience break out into loud applause.

Kumar also spoke about identifying victims of human trafficking. They work long hours, he said. “And if you try to talk to them, they won’t make eye contact and they look tired.” He also said that victims often work in back offices to avoid suspicion.

“Keep an eye on your surroundings,” he urged. “A lot of people came to the university when I was washing dishes, moving furniture — but no one was thinking, ‘Why would a student be doing all that?’”

Zelaya ended her speech by remembering her sister and the other women who are still working on the streets. “So today I ask you guys to walk with us,” she said. “Through this walk we are giving them a voice, letting them know that we are waiting here for them.”

 

This article originally appeared in Angelus News.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Yuri Gripas, Reuters

By Kurt Jensen and Julie Asher

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The leaders of the pro-life movement are used to having the ear of the president, as they had with Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

During their respective administrations, they addressed the March for Life via telephone, but this year the event marking the Roe v. Wade anniversary had the highest-ranking government official ever to address the crowd in person.

"Life is winning again in America, and today is a celebration of that progress," the official, Vice President Mike Pence, told the March for Life rally on the National Mall Jan. 27.

"More than 240 years ago, our founders declared these truths to be self-evident -- that we are, all of us, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," he said. "Forty-four years ago, our Supreme Court turned away from the first of these timeless ideals, but today, generations hence -- because of all of you and the many thousands who stand with us in marches all across the nation -- life is winning again in America."

Pence said President Donald Trump had asked him to address the rally, which took place under a sunny sky with temperatures in the 40s. "He asked me to thank you for your support, for your stand for life and your compassion for the women and children of America."

Other speakers included: New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, chairman of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee; Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager and now special adviser to the president; Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; and Reps. Mia Love, R-Utah, and Chris Smith, R-New Jersey.

Early that morning, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, conveyed a message from Pope Francis to the March for Life, saying the pontiff was "profoundly grateful for this impressive testimony to the sacredness of every human life."

"As he has made clear, so great is the value of human life and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in a mother's womb that no alleged right can justify a decision to terminate this life," the nuncio said. 

Pope Francis "trusts that this event, in which so many American citizens speak out on behalf of the most defenseless of our bothers and sisters, will contribute to a mobilization of consciences in defense of the right to life and effective measures to ensure its adequate legal protection," Archbishop Christopher said.

The evening before the march, Pence also hosted organizers at the Executive Office Building next to the White House. As a member of Congress, he had addressed the March for Life in 2002, 2003 and 2007.

"Our president is a man with broad shoulders, a big heart," Pence said at the rally. To loud cheers, he added, "His vision, his energy, his optimism are boundless, and I know he will make America great again."

He pointed to Trump's Jan. 23 executive action reinstating what's called the Mexico City Policy, which bans tax dollars from funding groups that promote or perform abortion in other countries. He said the administration would work with Congress to stop taxpayer funding of abortion "and devote those resources to health care services for women across America."

On Jan. 24, the House passed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, making the 41-year-old Hyde Amendment permanent. The amendment, which has had to be approved each year as part of the budget for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, prohibits tax dollars from paying for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the woman's life. The Senate has yet to act on a companion bill, but Trump has said he will sign it into law when the measure reaches his desk.

"I urge you to press on," Pence told the rally. "Let your gentleness be evident to all. Let this movement be known for love, not anger. Let this movement be known for compassion, not confrontation. When it comes to matters of the heart, there is nothing stronger than gentleness. I believe we will continue to win the minds and hearts of the rising generation if our hearts first break for mothers and their unborn children and meet them where they are with generosity, not judgment."

"You can sense the joy in people today," Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, told Catholic News Service. "I hope it's not lost."

Earlier in the week, march organizers predicted at least 50,000 would be there. But there were at least that many at the rally, and before it was over, marchers, including many busloads of parochial schoolchildren, covered the full width of Constitution Avenue, en route to the Supreme Court, for at least seven blocks.

Trump drew considerable attention earlier in the week by telling Republican lawmakers at a Philadelphia retreat that there could be as many as 600,000, eclipsing the Woman's March Jan. 21, which had an estimated 500,000.

Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life organization, acknowledged that new spotlight.

"There has been a lot of talk about numbers over the past week. The Women's March has talked about numbers and Facebook likes, and people keep asking me about our numbers for the March for Life. Well, it is hard to add up how many have come here over the last 44 years, but that really isn't the point," she said.

"The only number I care about, and the only number that we all care about is -- 58 million. Since 1973, 58 million Americans have died as a result of abortion," Mancini said. "We stand here today for them -- for the little innocent children who have lost their lives to abortion. We also stand here for the mothers who regret their abortion decision."

Conway took the podium before Pence.

"I am a wife, a mother, a Catholic, counselor to the president of the United States of America, and yes, I am pro-life," Conway said. "It is such an honor to stand with the vice president of the United States and so many leaders, families and students from places near and far (today)."

"Your courage, your conviction and your faith are impressive and consequential," she told the crowd. "This is a new day, a new dawn for life. Why are we here? What does it mean to stand together to be part of this incredible movement, to face criticism, ridicule, and laws and lawmakers (against life)? It means to protect and promote the most previous gift in the world -- the gift of life. It means to stand up stand tall and stand together against the indifference and the indefensible and on behalf of babies in the womb.

Conway added, "Allow me to make it very clear -- we hear you, we see you, we respect you, and we look forward to working with you, and yes, we march, we walk, we run and endeavor forward with you."

Congresswoman Love reminded the rally, "Every year, children, born and unborn, have the potential to open up our world and take us to places and spaces we never imagined."

In her remarks, Ernst vowed to reintroduce legislation to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding. She had done that in 2015, but "back then, we did not have a president who respected life" and President Barack Obama vetoed the legislation.

Smith, who is co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, called Obama "the abortion president" who "did serious harm."

"No human rights abuse however need be forever," said Smith. "You and I are part of the greatest human rights struggle on earth. Because we recognize and enthusiastically accept our duty to protect the weakest and most vulnerable and to tangibly assist women in crisis ... to pray, fast and tenaciously work to protect women and children from the violence of abortion."

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Regis Duvignau, Reuters

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Giving priority to Christian refugees for settlement programs would be "a trap" that discriminates and fuels religious tensions in the Middle East, said Iraq's Chaldean Catholic patriarch.

"Every reception policy that discriminates (between) the persecuted and suffering on religious grounds ultimately harms the Christians of the East" and would be "a trap for Christians in the Middle East," said Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad.

The patriarch, speaking to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, commented on an executive action by U.S. President Donald Trump that temporarily stops from U.S. entry refugees from all over the world and migrants from seven countries in an attempt to review the screening process. The document asks that once the ban is lifted, refugee claims based on religious persecution be prioritized.

Patriarch Sako said any preferential treatment based on religion provides the kind of arguments used by those who propagate "propaganda and prejudice that attack native Christian communities of the Middle East as 'foreign bodies'" or as groups that are "supported and defended by Western powers."

"These discriminating choices," he said, "create and feed tensions with our Muslim fellow citizens. Those who seek help do not need to be divided according to religious labels. And we do not want privileges. This is what the Gospel teaches, and what was pointed out by Pope Francis, who welcomed refugees in Rome who fled from the Middle East, both Christians and Muslims without distinction."

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, president of Caritas Internationalis, said any policy that gave priorities to Christians "might revive some of these animosities and might even pit Christians against Muslims, and that (also) might generate contrary action from the Muslims against Christians."

"This is a time when we don't want to add to the prejudice, the biases and even discriminatory attitudes evolving in the world," he told Catholic News Service in Beirut Jan. 30 at the Caritas Lebanon headquarters.

Emphasizing that he had not read the text of the executive action, but only news reports, the Philippine cardinal said announcing a ban being applied to specific countries was akin to "labeling them -- and the migrants coming from those countries -- as possible threats to a country. I think it is quite a generalization that needs to be justified."

Cardinal Tagle, who has visited refugee settlements as part of his role as Caritas president, said he asks people who express reservations about receiving refugees and migrants, "Have you ever talked to a real refugee? Have you heard stories of real persons?"

"Very often, the refugee issue is reduced to statistics and an abstraction," he said, and when people actually talk with refugees, "you realize that there is a human story, a global story (there) and if you just open your ears, your eyes, your heart then you could say, 'This could be my mother. This could be my father. This could be my brother, my child.'

"These are human lives," he said. "So, for people making decisions on the global level, please know that whatever you decide touches persons for better or for worse. And if our decisions are not based on the respect for human dignity and for what is good, then we will just be prolonging this problem -- creating conflicts that drive people away."

Canadian Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, undersecretary for migrants and refugees at the Vatican's new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told CNS in Rome that Christians are asked to reflect on the Good Samaritan and not to "react and act as if the plight of migrants and refugees is none of our business."

People should focus on those seeking security and "take the trouble to find out the facts" -- like how "migrants, far from being a drain, make a net contribution to the domestic economy -- rather (than) swallow allegations which just trigger fear."

Richer countries should not only welcome those who are fleeing, they "can do much more to help improve security and living, working, education and health opportunities in the refugee- and migrant-producing countries," he said in a written statement.

More effort should be put into peacemaking and more resources dedicated to "helpful foreign aid."

"The role of government is to enact its people's values, keeping different factors in balance. National security is important, but always in balance with human security, which includes values like openness, solidarity, hope for the future," the Jesuit priest said.

"The bottom line," he said "is the centrality and dignity of the human person, where you cannot favor 'us' and 'them,' citizens over others."

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Contributing to this story was Doreen Abi Raad in Beirut.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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IMAGE: QUEBEC-MOSQUE-SHOOTING

By Philippe Vaillancourt

QUEBEC CITY -- Faith and political leaders condemned a shooting at Quebec's main mosque that left at least six people dead.

Vigils were scheduled Jan. 30 in Quebec City and Montreal, the evening after two men entered the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center and opened fire, killing at least six men who were praying and injuring 19 more. Police later said they had arrested one suspect in the attack, the motive for which remained unclear.

Pope Francis met with Quebec Archbishop Cardinal Gerald Lacroix in Rome Jan. 30 and assured him of his prayers for the victims of the attack on the mosque. A Vatican statement said the pope highlighted the importance of Christians and Muslims remaining united in prayer in these moments.

Afterward, the cardinal immediately departed for Canada.

Archbishop Christian Lepine of Montreal said: "Nothing can justify such murderous acts aimed at innocent people. We are called to say again that, whatever our beliefs are, as human beings we are all brothers and sisters, all equal in dignity."

The Anglican bishops of Quebec City and Montreal were in Canterbury, England, when the attack occurred.

In a joint statement on the shooting, Coadjutor Bishop Bruce Myers of Quebec and Bishop Mary Irwin-Gibson of Montreal said: "Along with our grief and prayers we are called as disciples of Jesus to express our solidarity with our neighbors who are Muslim."

"We wish to express directly to our Muslim neighbors in Quebec our grief and repugnance at this brutal act of violence against another community of faith, and one in the midst of prayer. When one is attacked, we are all attacked, and our whole society is diminished," they insisted.

Over the years, the mosque had been targeted by hate crimes. A few months ago, a pig's head was left at the front door, sparking indignation throughout the city.

Quebec City is the capital of the province and its second-biggest city, with more than 500,000 people. It has 6,100 Muslims.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was scheduled to be in Quebec City Jan. 30.

"It was with tremendous shock, sadness and anger that I heard of this (Jan. 29) evening's tragic and fatal shooting," he said. "We condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge."

Quebec Mayor Regis Labeaume stayed up all night to assess the situation.

"My first thoughts go to the victims and their families hit while they were gathered to pray. Quebec is an open city where all must be allowed to live together in security and respect," he said.

"I invite the population to come together and stand united. Quebec is strong, Quebec is proud, Quebec is opened to the world," he added.

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Vaillancourt is editor on Montreal-based Presence info.

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