Nuns who help prostitutes say exploited women have spiritual needs

Published: 2007-11-08

ROME (CNS) -- With her hair dyed an unnatural shade of red and a thin green shawl draped over her, Carmelite Sister Begona Arroya stands out among nuns in a convent overlooking St. Peter's Square. But when she is ministering in southern Spain to prostitutes from all over the world, she blends right in. "I dress so I won't intimidate the women I need to reach," said Sister Begona, 41, with a smile. "I have no office, just a cell phone and a car." Consolata Sister Eugenia Bonetti, who spent 24 years in Kenya before returning to Italy "as a missionary in my own country," recalled the words of a woman who sought shelter in a safe house run by women religious. "She said, 'They destroyed my life.' And she repeated it, 'They destroyed my life.' And a third time, again. Every word was like a bomb," said Sister Eugenia. The nuns shared their experiences and knowledge of prostitution and human trafficking with women religious from around the world who gathered in Rome in mid-October to consider their unique role in confronting sex trafficking. The nuns created a new organization, the International Network of Religious Against Trafficking in Persons.

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