VZCZCXRO7969
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHROV #0044/01 0452022
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 142022Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY VATICAN
INFO RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0104
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN 0690

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VATICAN 000044 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/IWI, EUR/EX LARREAJ, EUR/EX DUGGANJ 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN PHUM PREL KPAO VT
SUBJECT: WOMAN OF COURAGE" - SR. EUGENIA BONETTI - ANTI-TRAFFICKING 
IN PERSONS CRUSADER ITALIAN UNION OF MAJOR SUPERIORS (USMI) 
 
 
¶1. Sr. Eugenia Bonetti, 67, is a Consolata Missionary sister and 
director of the anti-trafficking in persons (TIP) office of the 
Italian Union of Major Superiors (USMI), the umbrella 
organization for thousands of nuns throughout Italy.  Her 
remarkable courage and commitment to fighting the injustice 
suffered by thousands of women is fueled by her 24 years as a 
missionary in Kenya, where she worked with women and children in 
schools and parishes, and 15 years in Italy, where she began 
working in Turin with immigrants and refugees - many of them 
young Nigerian women, victims of human trafficking. 
 
¶2. With clear vision and strong leadership, Sr. Eugenia 
addressed the phenomenon of trafficking in persons early on.  In 
1997, she was awarded an MA from the Missionary Institute of 
London with a thesis entitled "A 20th Century Slave Trade, 
Breaking the Chains of Forced Prostitution."  The paper drew 
heavily upon her research with nearly 3,000 Nigerian women 
living and working in the northern industrial town of Turin. 
Due to her deep understanding of social justice and human right 
issues, she was transferred to USMI headquarters in Rome in 
¶2000. 
 
¶3. Since that time, Sr. Eugenia has built a network of nuns who 
serve on the frontlines of the life-and-death battle against 
trafficking in persons - offering material security, shelter, 
and pastoral care to thousands of its victims.  The network 
includes some 250 sisters from 70 congregations who operate 100 
shelters throughout Italy and provide for the protection, 
rehabilitation and social reintegration of victims.  Sr. Eugenia 
describes their work and ministry: 
 
"The Sisters try to find a response to the life-threatening 
situation of so many women and girls, imported and exported 
worldwide for the sex market.  When girls managed to escape from 
their pimps and asked us nuns for help, many different convents 
took a considerable and unknown risk in sheltering these girls. 
Having listened to their startling stories, the Sisters soon 
understood that 'working as a prostitute' was not a free choice. 
 They were victims of a modern form of slavery.  This was a 
challenge to our norms and values, to our traditions, as well as 
to our very safety.  But we continued." 
 
¶4. Under the direction of Sr. Eugenia, the Italian Sisters - and 
hundreds of others around the globe - respond to the extreme 
challenges the trafficking phenomenon presents.  At night, Sr. 
Eugenia and a group of volunteers fearlessly walk the via 
Salaria and other main thoroughfares of the capital and 
countryside, talking with the girls they come across, forced to 
prostitute themselves by pimps in the shadows.  On Saturday 
mornings, Sr. Eugenia and her team of 14 nuns - representing 8 
different nationalities and speaking as many languages - can be 
found at the Ponte Galeria Temporary Detention Center, offering 
pastoral care and kindness to the nearly 180 women inmates (many 
of them victims of trafficking) awaiting forced repatriation, 
the majority arrested for not possessing official documents 
(systematically stolen by their traffickers). 
¶5. In 2004, Sr. Eugenia, in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy to 
the Holy See, the UISG and the International Organization for 
Migration (IOM) conducted training courses for 87 religious 
sisters on the theoretical, practical and spiritual aspects of 
human trafficking.  Courses took place in Italy, Nigeria, 
Albania and Romania.  Similar courses involving the training of 
women religious were also carried out in Thailand, Santo 
Domingo, Brazil, the Philippines and Portugal.  In January 2007, 
Sr. Eugenia led a training program in Nairobi, Kenya, for 25 
nuns coming from eight African countries. 
¶6. In recent years, Sr. Eugenia's efforts have been aimed not 
only at victims of this modern-day slavery.  She has brought 
pressure to bear on members of parliament, non-governmental and 
faith-based organizations, as well as male religious orders, 
which she has vociferously encouraged to address the client 
aspect of the phenomenon.  Above all, she and her team of 
Sisters demonstrate to other religious orders that religious 
life in the third millennium demands putting an end to the 
international trafficking of women and girls.  This is, says Sr. 
Eugenia, "the actualization of the charism of religious 
congregations - men and women - in our day."  Her clarion call 
has prompted religious orders and the Vatican to take notice and 
initiatives. 
¶7. Sr. Eugenia collaborates with the Pontifical Council of 
Justice and Peace Working Group on Trafficking in Women and 
Children UISG/USG (Union of International Women Superiors 
General / Union of Men Superiors General) and Caritas 
Internationalis.  They have prepared a set of informative 
pamphlets on the issue for use by religious communities, 
seminaries, schools, parishes and youth groups.  The kit is 
available in six languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French, 
Polish and Romanian; a Portuguese and German version are in 
preparation. 
 
¶8. Further afield, Sr. Eugenia strategizes with several 
 
VATICAN 00000044  002 OF 002 
 
 
conferences of women religious and various other faith-based 
organizations to leverage alliances and resources in countries 
of origin, transit and destination.  In a unique collaboration 
with the Nigerian Conference of Women Religious (NCWR), Sr. 
Eugenia has encouraged local efforts in the remotest and poorest 
of communities to prevent trafficking, reconnect and protect 
families of victims, and assist in the rehabilitation of 
repatriated victims.  She has also provided vision and counsel 
to a TIP shelter initiative in Benin City for those victims 
forcefully repatriated from Italy.  The shelter - a first of its 
kind - has been financed by the Italian Episcopal Conference 
(CEI) and is expected to open its doors in May 2007. 
 
¶9. In 2004, Sr. Eugenia was named as one of six "Heroes Acting 
to End Modern-Day Slavery" in the annual TIP Report published by 
the U.S. Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat 
Trafficking in Persons.  On International Women's Day in 2006, 
she was made a Commendatore (Knight-Commander) of the Italian 
Order of Merit by then-President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi for her 
work on trafficking in persons. 
 
¶10. Of her dedication to eradicating trafficking in persons, one 
of the most pressing issues of our day, affecting millions of 
the world's most vulnerable people each year, Sr. Eugenia says: 
 
"I have heard the cry for help of the victims and came to 
understand their deep suffering and humiliation in being forced 
to become "prostitutes."  As a woman and as a missionary, I felt 
offended and indignant to see the life of so many young people, 
dreaming for a better future, destroyed for futile interests. 
In a special way, I joined with other women religious who have 
been moved by such circumstances to open the "holy doors" of 
their convents to hide and protect women running away from their 
torturers.  Fifteen years ago some daring women religious 
planted a small seed. They were women concerned with human 
rights and the dignity of so many women 'created in the image of 
God but treated as slaves.'  That tiny seed has grown into a big 
tree." 
 
¶11. In conferences, reports, words and deeds from America to 
Canada, Eastern Europe, Africa and other countries around the 
globe, Sr. Eugenia is shining a bright light on the scourge of 
trafficking in persons and the critical role religious women 
-and men-can play in bringing about an end to it.  She is truly 
a woman of courage, as well as a symbol of hope and human 
dignity to so many women who have had theirs robbed from them. 
SANDROLINI