Slavery is alive and well in various forms in the 21st century, and it is vitally important “to make this known” and “to combat it”.
Archbishop Michael L. Fitzgerald made this clear in Rome last week when he opened the 125th anniversary celebrations of the campaign to end slavery in Africa launched by the French cardinal, Charles Allemand Lavigerie, in 1888, at the invitation of Pope Leo XIII.
“I feel that if Cardinal Lavigerie were alive today he would be to the forefront in combating modern slavery, in Africa as elsewhere in the world. He would be engaged with the media to make known the iniquity of child labor and child soldiers, the horrors of human trafficking whether in the sex trade or in clandestine emigration”, the English-born archbishop stated.
“The Missionaries of Africa, his sons and daughters, are endeavoring to continue his campaign in the conditions of today’s world”, he added, referring to the two institutes found by the cardinal: the Missionaries of Africa and the Missionary Sisters of Africa.
Fitzgerald is one of those missionaries, but since February 2006 he has served as papal Nuncio to Egypt. He ended his diplomatic mission in October and is now going to join the Missionaries of Africa’s community in Jerusalem.
Back in Rome for a short time, Archbishop Fitzgerald gave a full report on his work in Egypt to Pope Benedict during a private audience. Then, on November 11, he presided at a solemn mass in the church of the Gesu’ for the opening ceremony of the year-long celebrations to commemorate Cardinal Lavigerie’s anti-slavery campaign.
Addressing a congregation composed mostly of religious men and women, during a mass enriched by the singing of a mainly African choir, accompanied by drums, Fitzgerald recalled how Cardinal Lavigerie began his campaign at the invitation of Pope Leo XIII. He was then bishop of Algiers, and knew much about the slave trade from the reports of the missionary priests and nuns whom he had sent to the heart of Africa, and he shared his knowledge and concern with the Pope.
Cardinal Lavigerie was convinced that “at end had to be put to the maritime trade in slaves, and the use of slaves in the colonies”, Fitzgerald stated. He used the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888 as an opportune moment to launch his campaign, well aware that “the hunt for slaves and the selling of slaves in the market places was still rife in the Continent of Africa.”
Motivated by his faith in Jesus Christ, the cardinal viewed the sufferings of Africans at the hands of slave traders “as a continuation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ in his Passion”, Fitzgerald said.
He discussed all this with Leo XIII, and with the Pope’s encouragement he left his diocese for a time to campaign against the slave trade. He appealed to the leaders of European countries who were then engaged in “the scramble for Africa”, asking them to oppose the slave trade and everything that offended human dignity.
He knew, however, that to get the Governments to do so he had to mobilize public opinion in Europe, Fitzgerald said. With that goal in mind, this inspiring orator visited the capitals of Europe, giving conferences in St Sulpice (Paris), Prince’s Hall (London), the Church of St Gudule (Brussels), and the Church of the Gesu (Rome).
Everywhere he went, the cardinal drew people’s attention to the fact that “the victims of African slavery were especially women and children”, and appealed in particular to the women in his audiences to pressure their rulers to change the situation.
The cardinal realized, however, that “he had to go beyond the Catholic world” to achieve his goal, Fitzgerald added, and so he not only called on all Christians to engage in this campaign, he also appealed to those in the wider community too, and all this effort contributed greatly to getting European governments to wipe out slavery in Africa.
Archbishop Fitzgerald concluded his homily by telling his audience that “today there is the same need for all forces to combine, those of believers and of non-believers, to work for the respect for human dignity in every part of the world” and to combat modern forms of slavery.