VATICAN CITY - Countless women and girls are being "crucified" by human traffickers, who trick them into slave labor or prostitution, and by those who seek out their services and exploit them, said the missionary nun who wrote the meditations for Pope Francis' Way of the Cross service.

VATICAN – Everyone must help in the fight against drugs, particularly governments which are called to confront the "traffickers of death" who produce, distribute or sell addictive substances, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN – The scandal of human trafficking, which affects millions of young people in the world, needs to be included in the Synod of Bishops' final document, one synod father said.

Canada’s homeless youth population is younger and more diverse than their American counterparts, but they are just as vulnerable of becoming trafficking victims.

OTTAWA – It would become a criminal offence for a Canadian to receive a transplanted organ harvested without consent under a bill introduced by a Conservative MP.

VATICAN CITY – Catholic pastoral workers play a crucial role in coming to the aid of "sea slaves" — fishermen who are held in inhumane conditions on the high seas for what can be years, a U.S. Department of State official said.

VATICAN CITY – Religious priests, brothers and sisters in Brazil are urging everyone attending the Olympic Games to report instances of exploitation of vulnerable people and to turn in suspected traffickers.

There’s no easy way out of Ontario’s sex trafficking crisis and no shortage of opinions about first steps.

WASHINGTON - Displaced members of Myanmar's Kachin ethnic minority are struggling with being away from their homes and the limited services available in a Catholic-run camp near the Myanmar-China border, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration.

TORONTO - Canada's largest homeless youth agency is calling on Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to adopt a broader, more co-ordinated approach to combat the scourge of sex trafficking.

WASHINGTON - The Catholic Church's strong stance against pornography is based on church teaching that the human body should be respected and every person has a God-given dignity.

WASHINGTON - A video of a Planned Parenthood physician describing her procedures for keeping fetal organs intact during an abortion is "horrifying and heartbreaking," said U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Missouri.

RHODES, Greece - Migrants pay thousands of dollars to human traffickers in countries like Turkey and Libya to ferry them to what they hope are the greener pastures of Europe. The growing crises in places like Libya allow traffickers to work almost unobstructed.

By Joy Smith, Catholic Register Special

On New Year’s Day, Pope Francis delivered his annual World Day of Peace message that passionately called for an end to modern-day slavery. The title, “No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters,” is taken from St. Paul’s letter to Philemon. Pope Francis noted that “slavery is rooted in a notion of the human person which allows him or her to be treated as an object” and highlighted the many forms of modern-day slavery, including “persons forced into prostitution, many of whom are minors.”

WASHINGTON - Arriving in the Philippines from Ireland in 1969 as a young missionary priest, Columban Father Shay Cullen hardly expected he'd end up fighting a burgeoning sex industry.