Pope Francis greets Australian delegate Angela Markas during a pre-synod gathering of youth delegates in Rome 
Prostitution is a form of “torturing women” Pope Francis told a group of young people at a pre-synod in Rome this week.
Responding to a young Nigerian victim of human trafficking, who was forced to become a victim of prostitution to pay supposed debts, Pope Francis said sex-buyers are “criminals”.
“If a young person has this custom, he should drop it,” the Pope said, referring to paying for sex.
“He’s a criminal. He can say: ‘But Father, can’t I make love?’ But this is not making love. It’s torturing a woman. Let’s not confuse the terms,” he added, to the applause of those present. “I ask for forgiveness for all the Catholics who commit this criminal act,” the Pope said.
Speaking at the event were 300 young people who offered their input during the weeklong gathering (March 19-24) in discussions that will be used to create a document which will be presented at the Synod of Bishops meeting this October themed ‘Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment’.
Theme
The pre-synod was themed ‘We talk together’, and welcomed youth from every part of the world and from many different cultural and religious realities. They were selected from dioceses, seminaries, associations and movements, schools and universities and from many walks of life, including arts, sciences, politics, sport, volunteering and young people with disabilities.
The Pontiff told the story of a nightclub in Buenos Aires, his former diocese, which burned down in 2004. Some 200 people died in the incident, and 1,500 were injured. The blaze was started when a pyrotechnic flare was set off and ignited foam in the ceiling. The Pope said that when he’d gone to visit the wounded in hospital, he found elderly men in the ICU.
“They’d lost their senses after a stroke,” Francis said. “They told me: they were brought here from a brothel. Elderly, young, these girls endure everything.”
“I ask myself, and ask you, is the Church still too chauvinistic… to truthfully question itself on this matter of the clients?” he said.
What women forced into prostitution go through “is unbelievable”, he said.
During his remarks, he spoke about having encountered survivors of human trafficking many times, including meeting a young woman who, after not being able to collect the daily minimum twice, got her ear cut off.
After being kidnapped or deceived by their traffickers, they begin to work “to defend themselves,” he said, becoming victims of what he described as “defensive schizophrenia”, isolating their hearts and saying simply “this is my work”.
“I celebrate that the youth is fighting against this,” he said. “It’s a sick mentality which leads to the exploitation of women. The problem is grave. I would want for young people to fight this.”
