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(Vatican Radio) Sophie from Kenya works for an NGO promoting greater awareness of human trafficking and shared with us her horrific story of how at the age of 13 she was tricked and enslaved by her own uncle. Now aged 21, Sophie was among those participating at an international conference in Nigeria against human trafficking that was organized by Caritas Internationalis and the Pontifical Council of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People. She spoke to Susy Hodges.

Listen to the interview with Sophie, a former victim of human trafficking:  

Sophie said her ordeal began when at the age of 13, her parents gave money to her uncle so she could be taken by him to a boarding school located in a rural area outside the capital, Nairobi.  Instead, unknown to her parents, the uncle never took her to school, spent the money on his own family and kept her locked up at his house.  She was forced to work as a minder for his children.  Sophie told us how her uncle’s wife would beat her physically and how a male relative living in the house sexually abused her. Her horrific ordeal lasted nearly a year until one day she was allowed to go out on an errand to the centre of Nairobi and there by chance met a friend of her mother who passed on the news to her parents. She was then rescued by her mother and taken back home.

Asked about how this terrible experience had affected her, Sophie said throughout her captivity she was “very angry at everybody: her uncle, her parents and everybody else. She said what made it worst was that the trafficker was not “a total stranger” but instead “a close relative” who had betrayed her parents’ trust in him. She described how during that period her parents were "really struggling" with poverty and it was an effort for them to even put food on the table to feed their children.

As a result of her ordeal, Sophie spoke of how she still finds it "difficult to trust people" and initially after her escape, she said the horrific experience “really broke me.”  Another consequence, she added, was that it completely changed the way she looked at life and it’s the reason why eight years later she wishes “to fight against injustice” and specifically reach out and warn other women and girls about the dangers of human trafficking.   

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(Vatican Radio) Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin has sent a telegramme to participants at an international ecumenical conference on Orthodox spirituality organised by the Bose community in the north of Italy.

The encounter, taking place from September 7th to 10th, is focused on the theme ‘Martyrdom and Communion’. The prior of the monastery, Fr Enzo Bianchi and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X opened the conference, while the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, will give a concluding address.

In the message the Vatican Secretary of State says that in the context of the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis sends greetings to all the representatives of the different Churches and hopes that the “days of study and reflection may be an auspicious occasion for fraternal encounter and exchanges, and for a sincere sharing” as they listen together to the Word of God and deepen their understanding of the spiritual tradition of the Orthodox Churches.

Furthermore the message says Pope Francis hopes that “the reflections on martyrdom as a precious Gospel legacy which brings together all the Churches may dispose us to consider the privileged path of the ecumenism of blood” which goes beyond differences and strengthens the journey towards Christian unity.

Finally the Pope prays for the presence of the Spirit at the conference and sends his apostolic blessing on participants, while at the same time asking them to pray for his ministry of service to the Church.

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While retired Pope Benedict XVI said organization and governance are not his strong suits, he also said, "I am unable to see myself as a failure."

In a book-length interview with the German author Peter Seewald, Pope Benedict said that when he resigned he had the "peace of someone who had overcome difficulty" and "could tranquilly pass the helm to the one who came next."

The new book, "Last Testament," will be released in English by Bloomsbury in November. The German and Italian editions were set for release Sept. 9, but some excerpts were published Sept. 8 by the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Pope Benedict insisted once again that he was not pressured by anyone or any event to resign and he did not feel he was running away from any problem.

"My weak point perhaps is a lack of resolve in governing and making decisions," he said. "Here, in reality, I am more a professor, one who reflects and meditates on spiritual questions. Practical governance was not my forte and this certainly was a weakness."

Pope Francis, on the other hand, "is a man of practical reform," the retired pope said. His personality and experience as a Jesuit provincial and archbishop have enabled him to take practical organizational steps.

The retired pope, who is 89, said he had no inkling that then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio would be elected his successor; "no one expected him."

"When I first heard his name, I was unsure," he said. "But when I saw how he spoke with God and with people, I truly was content. And happy."

Pope Benedict said it made no impression on him that the brand new pope chose to appear on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica without wearing the ermine-lined red mozzetta or cape. "What did touch me, though, was that even before going out onto the loggia, he tried to phone me."

Electing the first Jesuit pope and the first Latin American pope, the College of Cardinals showed that "the church is moving, dynamic, open, with the prospect of new developments before it," he said. "What is beautiful and encouraging is that even in our day things that no one expected happen and they demonstrate that the church is alive and brimming with new possibilities."

Seewald also asked Pope Benedict about reports that during his pontificate there was a so-called "gay lobby" in the Curia and the group protected certain priests by threatening to blackmail others.

The retired pope replied that a commission of three cardinals he had named to investigate a major leak of reserved documents and conduct an administrative review of Vatican offices and procedures identified "a small group of four, perhaps five persons," which a few Vatican officials and the media later would refer to as the "gay lobby."

"We dissolved it," Pope Benedict said.

The retired pope, who has had a pacemaker since 1997 and can no longer see out of his left eye, told Seewald that preparing for death is part of his daily routine. It's not a matter of getting his earthly affairs in order, he said, "but of preparing to pass the ultimate examination before God."

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets....

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Ryan Lochte is banned from swimming through next June and will forfeit $100,000 in bonus money that went with his gold medal at the Olympics, part of the penalty for his drunken encounter at a gas station in Brazil during last month's games....

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA's first asteroid-sampling spacecraft is poised for an evening liftoff....

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Tracey Stahl lost part of a leg to bone cancer last fall, and she has to wince through bouts of crippling pain from an ill-fitting artificial limb because of a strange health insurance limit: Her plan covers just one limb per lifetime....

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NEW YORK (AP) -- When Hillary Clinton arrived at her brand-new campaign plane, she greeted crew members, climbed aboard and then made a surprise move: a beeline to the dozens of journalists seated in the back....

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WHITE PLAINS, New York (AP) -- Hillary Clinton blasted Donald Trump Thursday for his condemnation of American military generals and his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying her Republican opponent had "failed" at proving he can be commander in chief....

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(Vatican Radio) Resuming the daily Mass at the Casa Santa Marta after the summer break, Pope Francis, in his homily, spoke about the importance of working for peace in small, daily actions – because, he said, it is in small daily gestures that peace on a global scale is born.

It is not so much great international meetings that produce peace, he said. Rather, peace is a gift from God which is born in small places: in the heart, for instance; or in a dream, as happened to St Joseph when the angel told him not to fear to take Mary as his wife, because she would give the world “Emmanuel”, that is, “God with us.” And “God with us”, the Pope said, “is peace.”

A gift we work for each day

The Pope began his reflection from the liturgy, which pronounces the word “peace” from the very first prayer. The Holy Father focused on the words of the opening prayer, “that we might all grow in unity and in peace.” We must work “to grow” in peace, he said, because peace is a gift “that has its own life journey”; and so, each one of us must work to develop it:

“And this path of saints and sinners tells us that we too ought to take this gift of peace and make it the path in our own life, make it enter into us, make it enter the world. Peace is not made overnight; peace is a gift, but a gift that must be taken up and worked on every day. For this reason, we can say that peace is a gift that is crafted in the hands of men. We men and women, each day, should take a step towards peace: It is our work. It is our work with the gift we have received: to make peace.”

War in our hearts, war in the world

But how can we succeed in this objective? the Pope asked. He pointed to a specific word in the liturgy of the day, which speaks of “littleness”: that of Mary, which is celebrated at Christmas, and also that of Bethlehem, “so small that you are not even on the maps,” as Francis paraphrased:

“Peace is a gift, it is a handcrafted gift that we must work for every day; but doing so in the small things, in daily ‘littleness.’ Great manifestations for peace, great international encounters, are not enough if peace is not then made in little things. On the contrary, you can speak of peace with splendid words, putting together a great conference… But if in your little things, in your heart, there is no peace, in your family there is no peace, in your neighbourhood there is no peace, in your place of work there is no peace, there will not be peace in the world.”

The question to ask

Pope Francis suggested that we should ask God for the grace of “the wisdom to make peace, in the little things of each day, but aiming at the horizons of the whole of humanity,” especially today, in which “we are living a war and all are seeking peace.” And in the meantime, he said, it would be good to start with this question:

“How is your heart, today? Is it at peace? If it is not at peace, before speaking of peace, make sure your own heart is at peace. How is your family, today? Is it at peace? If you are not able to bring peace to your family, your rectory, your congregation, bringing it more peace, then words of peace for the world are not enough. This is the question that I would like to ask today: How is the heart of each one of us? Is it at peace? How is the family of each one of us? Is it at peace? That’s how it is, isn’t it? To achieve peace in the world.”

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