The 21st century ‘Holy’ police alliance. Law Enforcement and Vatican partnership on combating modern slavery

• In Event: Police-Community Partnerships

Abstract

The Catholic Church is the largest and oldest Christian Church in the Western world. The institution's power throughout the middle ages led to exceeding levels of dominance and fortune to influence people's morals, philosophy and education that is far from losing relevance in the modern world. The Catholic Church has a profound spiritual and cultural confronting towards all matters of human life and has expressed varying degrees of concern on the matter of slavery. Today, the Catholic Church attempts to regenerate spiritual support where the Church wants to gain influence - slavery (‘modern day slave trade’) and, ‘human trafficking’ are now regarded as the biggest criminal challenge facing humanity (Pope Francis, 2014), leading to the creation of a 21st century abolitionist brand by the Church named as ‘The Santa Marta Group’. The group’s prime function is to link the Vatican with global law enforcement agencies in ending trafficking and become a world pipeline of Catholic Church intelligence from its presence in lives and spaces, and as such, a believed method of needed religious involvement to tackle this crime. This paper seeks to begin the initial stages of exploring the 21st-century alliance, including references to recent anti-slavery and anti-trafficking actions.

Author

• Janine Elizabeth Ewen, Independent