For almost ten years now, the Assumptionist Center in Brighton has been the home of a core group of community members and a residence for young, single men who are studying and/or working in the Boston area who wish to share an experience in Christian community life in the Catholic tradition. They come together on a regular basis to share meals, prayer, recreation and meetings through which they discover how God is working in their daily lives.

One of these gatherings takes place on six Sundays during the academic year and is called, "Conversations at the Center."  Focusing on different topics each time, it is an opportunity to come together with guests to pray, learn and discover what it means to be Church.

At the last Sunday "Conversations...," the topic was on human trafficking. The following reflective summary was written by a former resident of the Center, Jonathan Wheeler.

Yesterday I went to a discussion in Brighton on human trafficking and slavery. It was presented by a Sister of St. Joseph who has fought extensively in the surrounding areas to push back against this horrific reality. It was both eye-opening and apalling. The main things I took from it: 

- This is an endemic that is present everywhere. There have been recent cases and arrests involving sexual trafficking and debt enslavement in Newton, Tewksbury, Plymouth, and Boston. This is happening in our own backyards.

- 90% of the demand for sexual trafficking comes from men. Think about that. 90%. Cut off that demand, and the problem fizzles out. How do we curb this? How do we form more respectful men, media, and societal values? All males have to take responsibility to push back against this.

- This is an issue we are scared to talk about. It is blatantly evil. We are scared to admit that this is a reality, that it is a problem that is flourishing (the second biggest issue of crime in the world), and that it is ever-present in our society. How do we bring better awareness to this? Why is this relegated to the latter sections of newspapers and not placed on the front page?

- We need to change our language for talking about it. Sr. Ellen noted how even referring to sexual trafficking as an "industry" is dangerous, because industry is not in itself something evil. We can not speak of so grave and violent an issue in terms of potentially positive words such as "industry." It needs to be named for what it is.

- Almost all sexual trafficking and modern slavery is the direct result of poverty. When someone is born into poverty, they are effectively damned to it for many reasons (lack of accessible, good education, unsafe housing and working conditions, lack of access to health care, lack of job training, lack of a stable family situation, debt, etc.) How do we as Christians, as humans, as social creatures in social structures begin to address this?

- Awareness. This was Sr. Ellen's primary goal. To raise awareness that this is happening in our hometowns. That this is one of the fasting growing evils in organized crime throughout the world. That, as people who are becoming more informed, we ourselves in turn have to begin informing.

Resources:
http://www.acalltomen.org/