Nuns
Help Prostitutes Heal, Give Them Hope
Draw Strength From Charism of Eucharistic Adoration
By Mirko Testa
ROME, JUNE 12, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A group of religious
sisters devoted to Eucharistic adoration say they find
the same God in the Blessed Sacrament that they see in
the girls with whom they work -- young women rescued
from the prostitution trade.
Sister Aurelia Agredano explained the work of her
congregation, the Order of the Sisters of Adoration,
Slaves of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, at a
conference in Rome on the plague of human trafficking.
Addressing the congress on June 4, Sister Aurelia
explained the projects carried out by her congregation
-- which was born in Madrid in 1856 -- to combat the
traffic of women for sexual exploitation. Today the
congregation has close to 1,300 religious in 22
countries (virtually in all of Latin America, but also
in Japan, Cambodia and Vietnam).
The founder, St. Marķa Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament,
belonged to the Spanish aristocracy. From her youth, she
was active in apostolates and charitable works.
While caring for girls suffering from venereal diseases
in Madrid's St. John of God Hospital, she met a young
patient -- "the girl with the shawl, who fell victim to
an evil life" -- and convinced her to return to her
family.
It was then that the religious discovered the social
reality of prostitution and decided to found schools to
help such girls, victims of poverty and ignorance.
Protagonists
Sister Aurelia Agredano, who has eight years of
experience living beside girls from various countries
who have fallen into the net of human trade, spoke with
ZENIT about the project "Hope," founded in Spain in
1999.
"It is a program that puts women at the center, in their
concrete realities, and calls for a choice made in full
liberty," she explained. "More specifically, it is a
path marked by stages characterized by concrete
objectives and different structures of hospitality,
where the woman is the authentic protagonist and
recipient of individualized and integral care from the
physical, psychological, social and spiritual point of
view.
"In this way, through daily life in our 'Family Homes,'
they begin to recover their lost confidence, start to
take active part, to return to a normal life with study,
the search for employment … until they achieve complete
autonomy."
Social evil
Some 50 women have passed through the congregation's
three homes, but about 300 are in contact.
"We are very active in denouncing this social [evil],
with activities programmed through the media, magazines
and videos," Sister Aurelia said. "We encourage
awareness programs to generate common spaces for
critical reflection, but above all we are committed to
formation
"Our founder saw in formation the only means of
salvation or rescue for these girls. Because of this,
the social promotion and reinsertion [of the girls] is
important, otherwise they run the risk of falling again
into the same vicious circle."
The Spanish nun explained that the healing process takes
close to two years -- "and it is not simple."
"At first," she said, "we engage in awareness-building
at police stations, immigrant centers and embassies. In
our reception homes, we live with them, attempting to
create a family atmosphere, with all the difficulties
entailed, given the diversity of languages and
psychological dynamics that are a consequence of the
sufferings they have endured."
Threatened
And an already complicated situation is made worse by
frequent threats from the "owners" and managers who
stand to lose money and business when the girls are
rescued.
"We try to be very prudent and agile by changing our
dwelling from one place to another," Sister Aurelia
acknowledged. "We had to close a home in Belgium because
we were threatened."
At the end of the program, the girls can decide if they
return to their countries or stay. "In the [latter]
case, we offer the opportunity to study the [local]
language, to be trained and to seek work," the religious
sister explained.
The projects are financed in general by the congregation
itself or related foundations, and at times by public
and private grants.
But it is the spiritual motivation that keeps the homes
up and running.
"Our mission is nourished by continual adoration of the
Eucharistic Jesus, in spirit and truth, and directed to
liberating and promoting women exploited by prostitution
or victims of other situations of slavery," Sister
Aurelia affirmed. "We, the adorers, want to look at the
world from the Eucharist; the God we adore in the
Sacrament is the same we find each time in the women to
whom we are sent.
"As adorers, we address the reality of a woman-victim of
trade, from a concrete spirituality and pedagogy: a
Eucharistic spirituality and the pedagogy of love."
The secret is this, she said: "To educate in liberty and
with love, 'without punishments or harshness,' as our
founder affirmed. To respect the young girls, to believe
in them, to make each one feel important and a
protagonist of her own future."
