"If we can turn passive parishes into active parishes for this cause, we'll have made a giant step forward," she said.
Dr. John F. McEldowney, a law professor at the University of Warwick and a newly appointed member of the Academy of Social Sciences, agreed with Archer. He told journalists that he thinks the next step is "very much a collaborative effort throughout the world."
The hope is to bring together not just government entities and NGOs, but also the "smallest communities, in the smallest parts of the world," such as parishes and small villages.
One of the big projects to come out of the weekend, still a work in progress, is a document to define the rights of victims and the resources available to them.
McEldowney told CNA that this "victims' charter" would work as a sort of map to help people get from point A to point B to point C.
The document would connect information and resources from all the different areas in which victims likely need assistance – including legal aid, housing assistance, education, and mental and spiritual guidance. Together, these resources would help trafficking victims answer the question, "Where do I go from here?"
It is also hoped that the act of compiling the charter will draw attention to those areas which are lacking adequate, or perhaps any, resources. For example, it can be difficult for trafficking victims to know how to apply to a university if they are not a citizen of the country or don't have the correct documentation.
"It's an ambitious project," McEldowney noted in his comments to journalists. "It requires patience and dedication. And education, knowledge, information is at the heart of this, so that people know that slavery has not been abolished."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.