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Leading People to Christ through Liturgy, Learning, Sacraments, and Service.
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Anti-Trafficking Awareness

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If you need help or suspect someone is a victim of sex or labor trafficking, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 for free and confidential help OR text HELP to 233733.
Help Me
 
 
 
 
"Let us dare to enter the darkness, that we might bring another into the light." ~ Author Unknown
 
 
"We have to put ourselves in situations with people who are not like us, outside our systems of success and security, so we can read life from another perspective. The needs we witness will pull us toward love, toward generosity and compassion." ~ Richar Rohr
 
 
Next meeting(s):
  • March 25, 2024, 12:30-2pm (Staff Lounge) & 6:30-8pm (Youth Room)

Sex Trafficking - DID YOU KNOW?

  • There are over 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally. (Source: Minnesota Department of Health)
  • The average age at which a sex trafficking victim is first sold is 12 years old. (Source: Minnesota Department of Health)
  • Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide. It is the fastest-growing and most lucrative criminal enterprise in the U.S. behind drug trafficking. (Source: Minnesota Department of Health)
  • It's not just girls - 400,000 men and boys are being sexually exploited globally. (Source: Global News)
  • It's not always a stranger - 46% of victims know their trafficker. (Source: Global News)

 

DO YOU KNOW what's happening in MINNESOTA?

  • In 2015, Minnesota had the 3rd highest number of trafficking cases in the U.S. (Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation)
  • Sex trafficking has been reported in every county in Minnesota. (Source: C.A.S.T. - Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking)
  • In 2019, 5,000 students in Minnesota, grades 7-12, admitted being sexually exploited. (Safe Harbor)

 

DO YOU KNOW about the TWIN CITIES and our surrounding area? 

  • The Twin Cities has been identified by the FBI as one of 13 U.S. cities with a high rate of child sex trafficking. (Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation)
  • A 6-month study found 34,000 ads posted online in the Twin Cities. (Source: Office of the Minnesota Attorney General)
  • An online sting in southwestern Minnesota arrested 48 individuals. (Source: Office of the Minnesota Attorney General)
  • One 16-year-old trafficked in northern Minnesota was exploited by five men every day. (Source: Office of the Minnesota Attorney General)
  • A Twin Cities sex trafficker was sentenced to 21 years for sex trafficking five girls ages 15-6. (Source: United States Department of Justice: United States Attorney's Office, District of Minnesota)
  • Six boys between the ages of 12-17 committed suicide in the past year. They were all victims of sextortion in our area. (Source: A.C.T. United)
  • In 2022, a Rochester coach/policeman was charged with a child sex crime. (Source: KAAL-TV Rochester, MN)
  • A 25-year-old man choked to death a sex worker at an Eagan hotel on Oct 12, 2023. (Source: Dakota County Attorney's Office)
  • Bloomington police arrested 14 people in Sept. undercover operation. (Source: C.A.S.T. - Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking)
  • Olmsted County sheriff's deputy in child predator stinge by Rochester Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on Nov. 1, 2023. (Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press)
 

Let us join together in prayer to keep God’s children safe and end this devastating, destructive behavior. 

Prayer to end Human Trafficking
 
God of freedom, beauty, and truth, we believe that your deepest desire, your most powerful energy, is that all creation might know abundant life. We raise our voices in anguished prayer for our sisters and brothers, women and girls, men and boys, who are modern-day slaves; they are your beloved daughters and sons, exploited sexually or forced to work because of human violence or greed. Fill us with your holy anger and your sacred passion that those who are trafficked might know healing and justice, that traffickers will come to repentance and conversion, and that all of us might live in such a way that others are not made to pay the price for our comfort and convenience. Hasten the coming of the day when all people and our precious Earth itself will be treated, not as a commodity, but as radiant images of your freedom, beauty, and truth. Amen.
~ Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
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