Albany NY

Source: Times Union, Albany, N.儲存Y.Jan. 18--While football fans of all stripes are getting pumped up for the Super Bowl on Feb. 2, faith communities across the country are coming together on offense to tackle human trafficking.Tens of thousands of people will flock to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J., for the big game, with millions more watching from home. But there's a dark side to the revelry, a shadowy underbelly of organized criminal activity that most commonly includes human trafficking in prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation and forced labor.Sister Doreen Glynn, province justice coordinator at St. Joseph of Carondelet in Latham, has been working with a New York/New Jersey coalition of nuns in anticipation of this year's Super Bowl to educate residents and teach hotel workers the signs of human trafficking, which is often associated with large sporting events.In addition to meeting with sisters downstate, she reached out to congregations of all denominations to come together for a prayer vigil Thursday, at St. Joseph's Provincial House Chapel to observe National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month."President Obama made the proclamation in January 2012, in an effort to increase awareness about the global issue of human trafficking and modern-day slavery," said Glynn, who joined the convent in 1954 and is active with Nuns on the Bus, the group of sisters who spotlight social justice issues and first toured the country aboard a bus in 2012 to protest federal cuts in programs for the poor. "And it's not all sex trafficking. There's also labor trafficking, and as Pope Francis mentioned in a recent address from the Vatican, there's a new dimension -- organ trafficking."Sister Carol Davis, a Dominican Sister of Peace in Niskayuna, heard Glynn's call to action. Though the pair have run in similar circles for decades, they met for the first time last month to plan the vigil, where Davis will preach.Davis serves as a representative for the newly formed Leadership Conference of Women Religious Committee on Human Tra迷你倉ficking, and she was the only Dominican sister at a September meeting of the U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking in Washington, D.C.The initiative is a national, collaborative, faith-based network that offers educational programs and materials, supports access to survivor services, and engages in legislative advocacy in an effort to eradicate modern-day slavery."Coming together was a movement of the spirit," said Davis, a dream explorer and sexual abuse counselor who entered the order in 1972. "Human trafficking is an urgent matter because so many people are suffering, but at the same time we don't want to overwhelm ourselves into paralysis."An estimated 850,000 people are trafficked annually worldwide, according to the U.S. State Department -- 20,000 of them in the United States.A crime that's notoriously hard to track, human trafficking exploits men, women and children for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor and the extraction of organs.In 2003, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Migration and Refugee Services began educating the public about trafficking, and Roman Catholic women in particular continue to be key leaders in the national and international movement to address the issue."One of the gifts religious women have is to be in communion with each other," Glynn said."The way to increase awareness is to collaborate," added Davis. "There's power in collaboration, in the very best sense of the word, and that's why we're holding the vigil."The service begins at 7 p.m. and will feature prayers, music and information about human trafficking.Glynn and Davis plan to offer additional resources in the coming months, including awareness training at St. Joseph of Carondelet and the Dominican Pastoral Counseling Center, as well as other religious and nonreligious institutions."The great news is that we can make a difference," Glynn said.jpatterson@timesunion.com, 518-454-5340Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) Visit the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) at .timesunion.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉