Pope Francis warns human traffickers that God will make them pay!

Pope Francis warns human traffickers, that God will cut them down. Referring to traffickers as "merchants of death" the Pope's speech, delivered on the eve of World Day Against Child Labor, served as a stern warning to those who trade fellow human beings.

We ask you, humbly, to help.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

ROME, ITALY (Catholic Online) - Pope Francis went hard at human traffickers during his general audience yesterday, warning them that they would answer to God for their inhumanity to their fellow man. "One day everything comes to an end and they will be held accountable to God," the Pope said of traffickers.

He called for reforms of the law as well as upon parents to take better care of their children. Human trafficking often starts with the parents who might sell their children into slavery out of ignorance or greed, or grueling necessity.

Join a team committed to fighting the ills and evils of this world.

Pope Francis asked governments to strengthen protections for children and fir all people to "renew our commitment, in particular in families, to guarantee to every boy and girl the protection for his or her dignity and the possibility of healthy growth. A serene childhood enables us to look trustfully upon life and to the future."

Progress has been made. According to the International Labor Organization, the number of children performing dangerous work, typically under slavery conditions, is down to 85 million from a high of 171 million in 2000.

At the heart of the problem is poverty. Poverty creates many problems including hunger, ill health, and an uneducated culture where corruption can thrive. Parents, unable to feed everyone at the table, may sell a child to traffickers who promise to find the child work. From those wages, a certain amount of money will be sent home. It's a tempting offer, but most parents should also know it's a lie. Parents are paid up-front for their children who are taken away. Virtually none ever see home again.

Many children who become victims of human trafficking are simply used up until their masters have no further use for them. Then, they are released to the streets, forced to beg their living. In worse cases, they simply die and their bodies are unceremoniously dumped in garbage heaps.

While human traffickers may avoid the reach of the law for a long time, sooner or later, they will die and face the judgment of God for their lives of unrepentant sin. The justice of man is fleeting, but God's is eternal.

In the meantime, the Church and other agencies around the world are tackling this problem head-on. The Catholic Church, for example is providing crucial services to victims of human trafficking around the world, offering sanctuary and material aid.

Free RCIA classes for Students and Catechists from Catholic Online School

Catholic Team Global is also doing its part, mobilizing Catholics to participate in a three-pronged assault on the very root of this problem and others. The plan is simple. Provide children with food and medicine so they will not face desperate times, offer them a moral education, based on Christian values so they learn to avoid corruption and how to provide for themselves later, and give them quality learning tools that will engage them and prepare them for the future.

This is the single-best way to combat human trafficking and other ills of poverty, by attacking poverty itself. Nobody prosperous sells their children. Children cannot be bought and sold unless corruption is also present. Catholic Team Global has the plan in action.

Are you interested in learning more about what Catholic Team Global does? Sign up here and become part of a global team of Catholics dedicated to doing good in the world.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'