Archbishop Calinic calls human trafficking the ‘handcuffing in which others throw the weak, killing the soul’

Basilica News Agency –  Aurelian Iftimiu –22/10/2020

During his Sunday homily, the Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti referred to human trafficking, calling it ‘an outrageous sin that cries to heaven,’ adding that it leads to spiritual death.

‘Spiritual death comes too often from the handcuffing in which other people throw away the weak. They steal their identity, present and future. They rob them of dignity.’

“The confrontation with death is the drama of human life,” Archbishop Calinic said in his homily, referring to the Gospel reading about the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. That is why, His Eminence added, the Saviour felt sorry for this grieving mother.

Saying to the young man, her son, “Arise!” the Saviour shows us that ‘death is nothing else than deep sleep, the sleep of unbelief, from which man can wake up through faith, be it as a mustard seed, which is capable of moving mountains.”

“By entrusting the risen young man to his mother, He [the Saviour] emphasized the role of the mother in the lives of young people,” the hierarch added, suggesting that the resurrection is a return to full communion with our family and neighbour.

About the death and the killing of the soul

Holy Scripture records that the Saviour raised only three physically dead, people. “The resurrections of those spiritually dead through sin but raised by Christ are innumerable,” Archbishop Calinic said Oct. 18.

“Such resurrections happen daily. There are resurrections from death – a consequence of separation from God, or of the bondage of passions, or of excessive preoccupations for material life, which impedes the sight of the one next to us and communion with them, or of despair and helplessness,” explained the archbishop.

“It is even sadder,” he added, “that spiritual death too often comes from the handcuffing in which other fellows, out of petty interest, out of greed for vain things, and out of the desire for easy gain, throw away the weak, the one without defence, the naive, the forlorn, the one that no one cares too much about. They steal their identity, they steal their present and future, they rob them of dignity.”

“Legally, these facts are classified as “human trafficking.” Morally, they represent blatant sins that cry to heaven: “If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.” (Exodus 22: 23-24). Woe to the one from whom God will turn His face!” cautioned the Archbishop of Suceava.

This miracle shows us that “it is not death that has the last word, but life. Through death one passes into another dimension of life, which is called the Kingdom of God,” he mentioned. And “the resurrection of Christ is the guarantor of our resurrection,” he concluded.

On Sunday, in all churches and monasteries in the Archdiocese of Suceava and Radauti, information and awareness actions took place regarding human trafficking.

74% of victims of human trafficking in the European Union come from Romania. A quarter of the victims are minors, recruited mainly by the Loverboy method: a trafficker mimics that he fell in love with a girl, makes her fall in love, then forces her into prostitution through various methods of coercion or blackmail.

Photography courtesy of Doxologia.ro / Fr. Silviu Cluci

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