Pope Leo XIV Firmly Condemns
the Slavery of Human Trafficking
Submitted by Bryan Ramsey
Pope Leo XIV has spoken on many contemporary issues such as AI and “just war theory” in his latest encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas.” He also has issued an apology on behalf of the Church for being complicit to subverting the suffering and abuse of human dignity endured by so many of the injustice of slavery. In the same breath of this apology, the pope renewed a condemnation of human trafficking as a contemporary form of slavery in the digital age:
The bodies of these people are scarred, injured and worn down so that computational flow may continue uninterruptedly. Furthermore, criminal networks use online platforms, messaging systems, anonymous payment methods and profiling techniques in order to recruit, control and transport victims of trafficking — very often minors — reducing men and women to “data” to be tracked and “packages” to be moved around within the same digital circuits that support much of the global economy. This reality deeply challenges the moral conscience of our time. It is not enough to invoke efficiency, nor to celebrate the benefits of innovation, if they are built on a chain of exploitation that remains deliberately hidden. If technology promises emancipation, yet produces new forms of global subordination, it stands in contradiction to the fundamental principle of human dignity. (Magnifica Humanitas, 173)
In tying the scourge of slavery to human trafficking, he urges the Church and world to “a call of vigilance” to not repeat the tragic lessons of slavery:
What we have learned must be translated into discernment and responsibility in the present. If we want to avoid the need to ask for pardon again in the future for having failed to respect the treasure of human dignity that is required by our faith, it falls to us today to denounce, clearly and firmly, trafficking in its many forms and, together with all who are committed to this cause, to support concrete efforts of prevention, protection, liberation and rehabilitation. (Magnifica Humanitas, 177)