Catholic Social Teaching and Human Trafficking in War and Natural Disasters
This essay examines Catholic social teaching in the context of human trafficking in South Asia during armed conflict and natural disasters. Using a see-judge-act framework to construct the argument, this paper is focused on finding ways to narrow the gaps in these efforts. The gaps occur horizontally when individual issues become isolated from a larger effort, failing to recognize that many challenges are symptoms of a larger problem. The gaps also occur vertically, with the divide between theory and practice. The Church, including religious and lay actors, can diminish the threat and damage from human trafficking through a comprehensive implementation of Catholic social teaching that has a theological foundation and is conscious of the relevant cultural factors.