Pope Paul VI on Human Trafficking

PASTORAL CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD
GAUDIUM ET SPES
PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS, POPE PAUL VI ON DECEMBER 7, 1965
Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion,
euthanasia or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as
mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults
human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery,
prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where
men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things
and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to
those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme
dishonor to the Creator. (Gaudium et Spes, 27)