In the Book of Genesis, we read that God made man male and female, and   
   blessed them so that they could increase and multiply. He made Adam and Eve   
   parents who, in response to God's command to be fruitful and multiply, brought   
   about the first fraternity, that of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were brothers   
   because they came forth from the same womb. Consequently they had the same   
   origin, nature and dignity as their parents, who were created in the image and   
   likeness of God.   
    But fraternity also embraces variety and differences between brothers and   
   sisters, even though they are linked by birth and are of the same nature and   
   dignity. As brothers and sisters, therefore, all people are in relation with   
   others, from whom they differ, but with whom they share the same origin,   
   nature and dignity. In this way, fraternity constitutes the network of   
   relations essential for the building of the human family created by God.   
    Tragically, between the first creation recounted in the Book of Genesis and   
   the new birth in Christ whereby believers become brothers and sisters of the   
   'first-born among many brethren', there is the negative reality of sin, which   
   often disrupts human fraternity and constantly disfigures the beauty and   
   nobility of our being brothers and sisters in the one human family. It was not   
   only that Cain could not stand Abel; he killed him out of envy and, in so   
   doing, committed the first fratricide. 'Cain's murder of Abel bears tragic   
   witness to his radical rejection of their vocation to be brothers. Their story   
   brings out the difficult task to which all men and women are called, to live   
   as one, each taking care of the other'.   
    This was also the case with Noah and his children. Ham's disrespect for his   
   father Noah drove Noah to curse his insolent son and to bless the others,   
   those who honoured him. This created an inequality between brothers born of   
   the same womb.   
    In the account of the origins of the human family, the sin of estrangement   
   from God, from the father figure and from the brother, becomes an expression   
   of the refusal of communion. It gives rise to a culture of enslavement, with   
   all its consequences extending from generation to generation: rejection of   
   others, their mistreatment, violations of their dignity and fundamental   
   rights, and institutionalised inequality. Hence, the need for constant   
   conversion to the Covenant, fulfilled by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, in the   
   confidence that 'where sin increased, grace abounded all the more... through   
   Jesus Christ'. Christ, the beloved Son, came to reveal the Father's love for   
   humanity. Whoever hears the Gospel and responds to the call to conversion   
   becomes Jesus' 'brother, sister and mother', and thus an adopted son of his   
   Father.   
    One does not become a Christian, a child of the Father and a brother or   
   sister in Christ, as the result of an authoritative divine decree, without the   
   exercise of personal freedom: in a word, without being freely converted to   
   Christ. Becoming a child of God is necessarily linked to conversion: 'Repent,   
   and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the   
   forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'.   
   All those who responded in faith and with their lives to Peter's preaching   
   entered into the fraternity of the first Christian community: Jews and Greeks,   
   slaves and free. Differing origins and social status did not diminish anyone's   
   dignity or exclude anyone from belonging to the People of God. The Christian   
   community is thus a place of communion lived in the love shared among brothers   
   and sisters.   
    All of this shows how the Good News of Jesus Christ, in whom God makes 'all   
   things new', is also capable of redeeming human relationships, including those   
   between slaves and masters, by shedding light on what both have in common:   
   adoptive sonship and the bond of brotherhood in Christ. Jesus himself said to   
   his disciples: 'No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not   
   know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I   
   have heard from my Father I have made known to you'.   
    The many faces of slavery yesterday and today   
    From time immemorial, different societies have known the phenomenon of man's   
   subjugation by man. There have been periods of human history in which the   
   institution of slavery was generally accepted and regulated by law. This   
   legislation dictated who was born free and who was born into slavery, as well   
   as the conditions whereby a freeborn person could lose his or her freedom or   
   regain it. In other words, the law itself admitted that some people were able   
   or required to be considered the property of other people, at their free   
   disposition. A slave could be bought and sold, given away or acquired, as if   
   he or she were a commercial product.   
    Today, as the result of a growth in our awareness, slavery, seen as a crime   
   against humanity, has been formally abolished throughout the world. The right   
   of each person not to be kept in a state of slavery or servitude has been   
   recognised in international law as inviolable.   
    Yet, even though the international community has adopted numerous agreements   
   aimed at ending slavery in all its forms, and has launched various strategies   
   to combat this phenomenon, millions of people today - children, women and men   
   of all ages - are deprived of freedom and are forced to live in conditions   
   akin to slavery.   
    I think of the many men and women labourers, including minors, subjugated in   
   different sectors, whether formally or informally, in domestic or agricultural   
   workplaces, or in the manufacturing or mining industry; whether in countries   
   where labour regulations fail to comply with international norms and minimum   
   standards, or, equally illegally, in countries which lack legal protection for   
   workers' rights.   
    I think also of the living conditions of many migrants who, in their dramatic   
   odyssey, experience hunger, are deprived of freedom, robbed of their   
   possessions, or undergo physical and sexual abuse. In a particular way, I   
   think of those among them who, upon arriving at their destination after a   
   gruelling journey marked by fear and insecurity, are detained in at times   
   inhumane conditions. I think of those among them, who for different social,   
   political and economic reasons, are forced to live clandestinely. My thoughts   
   also turn to those who, in order to remain within the law, agree to   
   disgraceful living and working conditions, especially in those cases where the   
   laws of a nation create or permit a structural dependency of migrant workers   
   on their employers, as, for example, when the legality of their residency is   
   made dependent on their labour contract. Yes, I am thinking of 'slave labour'.   
    I think also of persons forced into prostitution, many of whom are minors, as   
   well as male and female sex slaves. I think of women forced into marriage,   
   those sold for arranged marriages and those bequeathed to relatives of their   
   deceased husbands, without any right to give or withhold their consent.   
    Nor can I fail to think of all those persons, minors and adults alike, who   
   are made objects of trafficking for the sale of organs, for recruitment as   
   soldiers, for begging, for illegal activities such as the production and sale   
   of narcotics, or for disguised forms of cross-border adoption.   
    Finally, I think of all those kidnapped and held captive by terrorist groups,   
   subjected to their purposes as combatants, or, above all in the case of young   
   girls and women, to be used as sex slaves. Many of these disappear, while   
   others are sold several times over, tortured, mutilated or killed.   
    Some deeper causes of slavery   
    4. Today, as in the past, slavery is rooted in a notion of the human person   
   which allows him or her to be treated as an object. Whenever sin corrupts the   
   human heart and distances us from our Creator and our neighbours, the latter   
   are no longer regarded as beings of equal dignity, as brothers or sisters   
   sharing a common humanity, but rather as objects. Whether by coercion or   
   deception, or by physical or psychological duress, human persons created in   
   the image and likeness of God are deprived of their freedom, sold and reduced   
   to being the property of others. They are treated as means to an end.   
    Alongside this deeper cause - the rejection of another person's humanity -   
   there are other causes which help to explain contemporary forms of slavery.   
   Among these, I think in the first place of poverty, underdevelopment and   
   exclusion, especially when combined with a lack of access to education or   
   scarce, even non-existent, employment opportunities. Not infrequently, the   
   victims of human trafficking and slavery are people who look for a way out of   
   a situation of extreme poverty; taken in by false promises of employment, they   
   often end up in the hands of criminal networks which organise human   
   trafficking. These networks are skilled in using modern means of communication   
   as a way of luring young men and women in various parts of the world.   
    Another cause of slavery is corruption on the part of people willing to do   
   anything for financial gain. Slave labour and human trafficking often require   
   the complicity of intermediaries, be they law enforcement personnel, state   
   officials, or civil and military institutions. 'This occurs when money, and   
   not the human person, is at the centre of an economic system. Yes, the person,   
   made in the image of God and charged with dominion over all creation, must be   
   at the centre of every social or economic system. When the person is replaced   
   by mammon, a subversion of values occurs'.   
    Further causes of slavery include armed conflicts, violence, criminal   
   activity and terrorism. Many people are kidnapped in order to be sold,   
   enlisted as combatants, or sexually exploited, while others are forced to   
   emigrate, leaving everything behind: their country, home, property, and even   
   members of their family. They are driven to seek an alternative to these   
   terrible conditions even at the risk of their personal dignity and their very   
   lives; they risk being drawn into that vicious circle which makes them prey to   
   misery, corruption and their baneful consequences.   
    A shared commitment to ending slavery   
    5. Often, when considering the reality of human trafficking, illegal   
   trafficking of migrants and other acknowledged or unacknowledged forms of   
   slavery, one has the impression that they occur within a context of general   
   indifference.   
    Sadly, this is largely true. Yet I would like to mention the enormous and   
   often silent efforts which have been made for many years by religious   
   congregations, especially women's congregations, to provide support to   
   victims. These institutes work in very difficult situations, dominated at   
   times by violence, as they work to break the invisible chains binding victims   
   to traffickers and exploiters. Those chains are made up of a series of links,   
   each composed of clever psychological ploys which make the victims dependent   
   on their exploiters. This is accomplished by blackmail and threats made   
   against them and their loved ones, but also by concrete acts such as the   
   confiscation of their identity documents and physical violence. The activity   
   of religious congregations is carried out in three main areas: in offering   
   assistance to victims, in working for their psychological and educational   
   rehabilitation, and in efforts to reintegrate them into the society where they   
   live or from which they have come.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)