Scottish Catholic Observer

The Holy Father was joined by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the Hindu guru Mata Amritanandamayi, known as Amma, as well as Buddhist, Jewish and Shiite and Sunni Muslim representatives for a signing ceremony of a joint declaration against modern slavery.

The leaders gathered on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery at a ceremony at the Pontifical Academy for Sciences to sign the declaration and, in doing so, committed to do everything in their power and within their faith communities to work to free the estimated 35 million people enslaved across the world by 2020.

The Pope thanked all religious leaders for their commitment to assisting survivors of human trafficking.

“Inspired by our confessions of faith, we are gathered here today for an historical initiative and to take concrete action: to declare that we will work together to eradicate the terrible scourge of modern slavery in all its forms,” he added.

“Every human being, man women, boy and girl, is made in God’s image… Therefore, we declare on each and every one of our creeds that modern slavery, in terms of human trafficking, forced labour and prostitution, and organ trafficking, is a crime against humanity.”

Today’s event was the culmination of efforts since the agreement signed on March 17 in the Vatican, under the guidance of the Global Freedom Network, to eradicate modern forms of slavery and human trafficking by 2020.

The Pope said the declaration was a ‘call to action all persons of faith and their leaders, Governments, businesses’ and ‘all men and women… to lend their unwavering support and to join the movement against modern slavery, in all its forms.’

Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the head of the pontifical academy, said the Pope’s concern for modern slaves stems from both the Gospel and his ministry to the residents of the slums of Buenos Aires when he was archbishop.

“Here he came into contact with the drug situation, the situation of the excluded, and naturally the most dramatic form of exclusion is slavery, which is forced labour and prostitution,” Bishop Sanchez said.

Pic: Pope Francis greets ‘comfort women’ at a Mass for peace and for the reconciliation of North and South Korea at Myongdong cathedral in Seoul, South Korea on August 18. The Holy Father, together with leaders of world’s major religions, today pledged to help eradicate human slavery and trafficking by 2020