Women's religious orders work to ward off sex trafficking at Super Bowl
By Mark Pattison (Catholic News Service)
WASHINGTON (CNS)—Picking up from efforts to stem sex trafficking at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, 11 women’s religious orders from Indiana and Michigan are working to stop sex trafficking at this year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
The orders are members of the Coalition for Corporate Responsibility for Indiana and Michigan, established in the early 1990s.
The coalition is a member of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), which spearheaded the anti-sex trafficking efforts two years ago in South Africa.
When ICCR’s human trafficking working group mentioned during its meeting last June that Super Bowl XLVI would be held on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis, “we picked up the ball and ran with it,” said Sister Ann Oestreich, an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister who ministers as justice coordinator for the Sisters of the Holy Cross in South Bend., Ind., and is the two-state coalition’s justice co-chair.
“In CCRIM, we had done a process in terms of picking one issue that was important to all of our members. Prior to the Super Bowl, the issue of human trafficking came up,” Sister Ann told Catholic News Service during a Jan. 12 telephone interview from South Bend.
“It’s such a broad issue,” she said. “How do we get at it as investors—as socially responsible investors? So we decided to take a look at the hospitality industry and purchasing stock in their companies so we could get into a conversation with the hotels.”
Coalition representatives contacted the federal Department of Health and Human Services for assistance.
“We asked for printed copies of brochures on their website, and HHS was kind enough, when they heard what we were doing, to provide 2,000 printed copies of those brochures.”
The coalition prepared its own fact sheet to help hotel staff members detect sex trafficking, including a list of phone numbers to call as well as a shelter for trafficked women.
The goal was to contact 220 hotels within a 50-mile radius of Indianapolis by Jan. 17.
To date, the response from the hotels has been quite good, Sister Ann said.
Based on a Jan. 12 conference call with coalition members, “we’ve got about 50 responses so far for the hotels,” she said. “About half of the hotels have asked for further information that we’re offering them in terms of training, in terms of signing the ECPAT code.”
ECPAT is an acronym for Ending Child Prostitution and Trafficking, which has developed a code of conduct to deter child sexual exploitation.
At this rate, Sister Ann said, they are likely to run out of the HHS brochures.
“They’re asking for 50 copies, 100 copies, 10 copies,” she told CNS. “The materials are going to be used far and wide.”
The fact sheet will also include instructions for hotels to download and print additional brochures.
For two weeks after the Jan. 17 contact deadline, students from Marian University in Indianapolis and volunteers from the Congregation of St. Joseph in Tipton, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese, will make personal visits to the hotels to deliver the requested materials.
Sister Ann said the hotels asking to participate in the effort cut across chain ownership and pricing levels—from the swanky hotels in downtown Indianapolis to more modest hotels in outlying areas.
Once the deliveries are completed, she said, the coalition is going to leave the hotels alone.
“The hotels are going to be busy, and we want them to be able to do what they have to do,” Sister Ann said. “The Super Bowl is a celebration, but we don’t want exploitation to be part of it.”
Franciscan Sister Marge Wissman, director of justice, peace and integrity of creation for the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Oldenburg, said the
anti-trafficking campaign is also intended to educate the general public about the international sexual exploitation of women and children related to large sports events.
“Now it is facing us locally,” Sister Marge said. “It’s not just prostitution. It’s forced prostitution.”
She said people who suspect sex trafficking activities should call 911 to notify law enforcement officials in their area.
Coalition members are working with the Indiana Attorney General’s office to promote awareness about sex trafficking.
Prayer services for an end to sex trafficking began on Jan. 11, which is National Anti-Trafficking Day, Sister Marge said. “We are now saying a prayer every day from Jan. 11 until the Super Bowl that the sex trafficking will stop and that victims will be taken care of.”
Coalition members based in the archdiocese are the Sisters of St. Francis in Oldenburg and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.
Other coalition members are the Sisters of St. Joseph in Tipton; Dominican Sisters in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters in Huntington, Ind.; Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ in Donaldson, Ind.; Servants of Jesus; Sisters of Mary Reparatrix; Sisters of Mercy; Sisters of the Holy Cross in Notre Dame, Ind.; and Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe, Mich.
- - -
Senior reporter Mary Ann Garber contributed to this story.
- - -
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops