Religion & Law

Mary Leary at Catholic University's Law School has organized what promises to be an excellent National Press Club program on April 7 (5 -- 6:30) on "Child Trafficking:  America's Role in the Problem and Solution."  Among the speakers are Luis CdeBaca, the U.S. Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and Peggy Healy, from Covenant House International.  

Here's a conference description:

Slavery in 2011 has mutated but not disappeared. Today, it lives on in many forms, including modern child trafficking. Thousands of people, including children, are trafficking throughout the world each year. The United States has been designated as a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked children. This symposium will bring together various stakeholders including the U.S. Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, to focus on the role of the United States in both the problem of child trafficking as well as the response. The conversation is intended as a substantive and productive discussion about current and future goals. It seeks to move the dialog forward for children by examining the reality of children trafficked in the Americas and the ability of U.S. society to respond. The panel will also expected to address current legislation regarding the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

You can get more information and register here

UPDATE:  Mary sent me this profile of Ambassador CdeBaca, who calls himself "a Vatican II baby", and describes how his Catholic faith shaped his vocation:

Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, a New Mexico-born Catholic of Mexican descent, who runs the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the State Department, readily acknowledges that the council's call to Catholics to engage the world guided his decision to become a civil rights lawyer and eventually to prosecute some of the country's largest human trafficking cases.



That call is especially meaningful, he told Catholic News Service, now that he heads the country's top office that works to disrupt the criminal networks that promote modern-day slavery and human abuse.



CdeBaca, 42, called himself "a Vatican II baby."



"It was very interesting to me," he said, "especially coming out of law school as a young civil rights lawyer, to really start digging deeper and to realize that Vatican II, if you looked at 'Gaudium et Spes' (the council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) and ... (understand) the real concrete church in the world type of things, wow."