Vatican City, Aug 22, 2013 / 23:04 pm
At Pope Francis' request, Vatican experts will gather this upcoming November with the aim of better tackling the growing scourge of human trafficking.
"We must be grateful to Pope Francis for having identified one of the most important social dramas of our time and that he has had enough trust in our Catholic institutions to ask us to arrange this working group," said Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
The bishop's academy along with the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations will meet to discuss a Vatican action plan to help combat what is often referred to as the modern slave trade.
"Trafficking in human beings is a terrible offense against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights," Bishop Sánchez Sorondo told Vatican Radio on Aug. 22. "In this century, it acts as a catalyst in the creation of criminal assets."