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The Consolata Missionary Sister fights against human trafficking PDF Print E-mail
Written by Sanibonani   
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
She is known throughout the world for her battles, so much so that even President Bush wanted to meet her in Rome. Her life is on the streets, saving prostitutes.

Sister Eugenia Bonetti was once caressed on the forehead by John Paul II. And this may not even be a piece of news, because the meeting between the Pope and a nun is something normal.

But Sister Eugenia is really a special person, given that in these last years we have seen her kiss the former Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on the cheek, shake the hand of the present Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the Presidential Palace, have breakfast with the First Lady Laura Bush and meet the American President at the American ambassador's residence in Rome.

Sister Eugenia, a Consolata Missionary Sister, has been known for quite some time by those who have had to face one of the greatest shames of our times: human trafficking. She fights against this shame on behalf of the IMSU, the Italian Major Superiors' Union.

In 2004, the American State Department indicated her as one of the "heroes" committed against this form of modern slavery. Last March, the American ambassador accredited to the Holy See, Francis Rooney, rewarded her as a "courageous woman" on behalf of the government. It is not surprising that President Bush wanted to meet her. But first there was the breakfast at the embassy.

"I wasn't quite at all with Mrs. Bush", Sister Eugenia funnily says, "and in the end my coffee got cold in the cup, but the First Lady listened to me with a lot of attention". Then the President summoned her. "Sister, I wanted to say hi to you and to thank you for what you do", he said to me. He wanted to know what we are doing and he asked me whether the problem of human trafficking is increasing or decreasing. I told him that, unfortunately, it is not decreasing at all. So he then asked me: "Are we rulers doing enough?". I answered him: "No, Mr. President, you are not doing enough. You have to fight more against poverty, corruption and the traffickers".

This nun is really brave, born 68 years ago at Bubbiano, a town in the lower part of the province of Milan. "I am the last born of five sisters and a brother", she tells, "and before putting on the habit my name was Magdalene. At the age of 14 I read in a missionary magazine the story of a Consolata Missionary Sister killed in Kenya by the Mau Mau guerrilla fighters. That nuns name was Eugenia and I said to myself: "I am going to take her place". In the end not only did I take her place but I even took her name".

As a Consolata Missionary Sister, Sister Eugenia leaves for Kenya in 1967. She ends up staying there for 24 years, working as a social worker, a teacher, a catechist. In 1991, she returns to Italy in order to work in a listening and welcoming centre of the Caritas organization in Turin. Here she meets the immigrant women, above all Nigerians, sent to prostitute themselves out on the streets.

"The encounter with one of these, Mary, changed my life", she tells. "The Lord gave me a vocation within a vocation. It was like a new calling, I understood that I had to take care of these exploited women".

In 1997, Sister Eugenia takes a specialization course in London and then she sets out on her battle, first of all seeking the cooperation of religious communities. "The family houses, the Caritas organizations, right from the start, understood this problem. Even the police, at night, would bring the girls picked up on the streets to us. Some nuns were scandalized, saying: "my God! A prostitute in the convent!", but we had to do something. And on our part there was a bank that never goes bust: Divine Providence".

Sister Eugenia continues to meet with these exploited women, in the welcoming centres like the one of Ponte Galleria, close to Rome, or even directly on the streets of prostitution, like Salaria Road, where the majority of the girls who prostitute themselves are Romanian.

"Pulling them from the streets is not easy, but we often manage to. We see real miracles taking place. But at times it is already something to talk to them, to give them some hot tea, some biscuits, a blanket. At least for a few minutes they do not feel alone like merchandise thrown out onto the street. I say to whoever blames these girls that they are already redeemed, we only have to make them be reborn, give them back their dignity and the will to live". Sister Eugenia's heart is always for "them", the ones whom she calls "sisters of the streets and of the night". She doesn't care about the possible risks that she faces. She says: "It is the girls who really run risks, my life has already been given".

She will be leaving for Nigeria, where she will be inaugurating a welcoming centre. Sister Eugenia never stops.
Last Updated ( Monday, 28 April 2008 )