Cardinal Tagle on human trafficking: Where is our humanity?

Sep 08, 2016

MANILA: Cardinal Luis Tagle, President of Caritas Internationalis, on Wednesday lamented the continuing reality of slavery and human trafficking despite the lessons of the past and so many advances in technology and human knowledge. Looking at this scourge, the cardinal said he wanted to ask ‘where is the humanity’ in our modern age when we see unscrupulous traffickers prey on the most vulnerable and poor among their fellow human beings.Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, was among those attending a 3-day international conference against human trafficking held this week in the Nigerian capital, Abuja that was organized by Caritas and the Pontifical Council of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People.

Asked for his feedback on the conference and its outcome, Cardinal Tagle said he was very satisfied with the outcome, conceding it was an “unpleasant” learning experience for him, to discover “the depths and complicated reality of human trafficking.”Stressing we need as much information and data as possible on this scourge, the cardinal said it was clear that a collective global across-the-board response is required to tackle the problem of trafficking.

“No one individual or single institution” can give “an adequate response,” he said.“We need to work together…. everybody of good will.”

On a personal level, Cardinal Tagle said he was disturbed and saddened by the fact that we’re still talking in the 21st century about “slavery, forced labour, the exploitation of the most vulnerable,” despite the "valuable lessons of two past World Wars" and a modern day society that is marked by so many “advances in technology, science and human knowledge.” “Where is the humanity,” he asked.--Vatican Radio