The Argentine, who has repeatedly described the human trafficking behind
much prostitution as “a crime against humanity”, sat down with the
group, including four women from Albania, seven from Nigeria and six
from Romania.
The other three hailed from Italy, Tunisia and the Ukraine, according to
a Vatican statement. The women, all aged around 30, are being sheltered
by a Catholic association in an apartment in the Italian capital after
being rescued from their pimps.
The 79-year old listened for over an hour to the stories of the former
sex slaves, “all of whom suffered serious physical abuse and live under
protection,” the Vatican said. The visit fell under what have been
termed Francis’s “Fridays of Mercy”, whereby he carries out one
unscheduled act of mercy a month on a Friday, mainly in or near Rome,
throughout the pope’s Jubilee year, which started in December and runs
to November.
In January, he visited a care home for the elderly and people in a
vegetative state, while in February he went to a community for drug
addicts.
In March he toured a refugee centre before visiting asylum seekers on
the Greek island of Lesbos in April. The pontiff then spent time with
the seriously mentally ill in May before visiting old and ill priests in
June and dedicating his July “Friday of Mercy” to sick children in
Krakow after praying for the victims of the Holocaust at the
Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp.