Colombian bishop grateful ‘Sound of Freedom’ is exposing child trafficking in his country

By Eduardo Berdejo

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 10, 2023 / 05:00 am

The bishop of El Espinal in Colombia, Miguel Fernando González Mariño, thanked the producers of the film “Sound of Freedom” for exposing the “international multimillion-dollar commerce in children business” despite those who try to discredit the film.

“Sound of Freedom” was produced by Mexican actor and pro-life and family activist Eduardo Verástegui. The film is based on the true story of U.S. Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard — played by Jim Caviezel — who quits his job with the agency to go to the Colombian jungle and rescue children who have been kidnapped by sex traffickers.

In an article published on the diocesan website, González pointed out that the business of trafficking in minors “involves our country and demonstrates social and family degradation.”

The prelate, who also referred to the difficulties that the film faced in getting shown in the theaters, noted that “it doesn’t suit some people to talk about this scourge because it threatens their finances and they have taken it upon themselves to discredit this film.”

“The topic is ridiculed or its producers are described as fanatics. The truth is that we must thank its brave filmmakers, who, convinced of human dignity and with a deep Catholic faith, have dared to raise a cry: ‘God’s children are not for sale,’” the bishop said.

González also pointed out that in the last 100 years, the film industry has played a leading role in imposing social trends in fashions, music, language, social behavior, and models of masculinity and femininity, acquiring the ability “to spread throughout the world even the acceptance of moral, or immoral, behaviors, from the concept of family to global political models, the position of religion, or various models of spirituality or materialism.”

The Colombian bishop also addressed in his article the drama of the sexual abuse of children and said that for some years now, some media outlets have worked “with great cunning and great effectiveness” to silence the Catholic Church “on the issue of child abuse, presenting it as the most corrupt institution in the treatment of children.”

“But the facts clearly demonstrate how, on the contrary, sadly the institution of the family is the area where the greatest number of abusive acts against minors occur. The forced and long lockdowns due to the pandemic were the trigger for the numbers of these crimes to rise scandalously,” he noted.

The bishop explained that “irregular family environments where stepfathers, stepchildren, and other people who live under the same roof live ‘too close together,’ forming a strange and artificial family nucleus are the kind that abound today. This reality, added to the uncontrolled proliferation of pornography and the effort to promote gender ideology in school, makes our children easy victims of abuse and corruption.”

As part of the effort to deal with the problem, the prelate invited the faithful to take a course on the “prevention and management of domestic violence with emphasis on the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents,” which will be taught from Sept. 8 to Oct. 28.

The course is offered by the John Paul II Institute for the Formation of Laity in association with the Superior School of Public Administration.

“I believe that this is one of the ways in which we can combat this painful scourge that has traditionally been hidden, because ‘God’s children are not for sale,’” he concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.