Catholic Church Nun Is The ‘Secret Weapon’ In Multiple Raids On Brothels


If you were to ask an American what they think slavery is, you’ll generally get one of two answers. The first is historical, pertaining mostly to African-Americans during Civil War times. The second is financial, pertaining to debt in which credit card debt is the most common form of modern-day slavery (being owned by creditors). To the rest of the world, slavery is a more serious situation, primarily based on sex, its sale, and its distribution. The Inquisitr reported on the latest which is mostly associated to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an organization that is extremely organized with sex trafficking. It should be noted that just because the United States is a first-world country, there is sex trafficking here too. A Utah trucker, for example, was keeping six sex slaves and altering their appearances.

Thankfully, this atrocity is not left to its own devices. Many police authorities around the world are doing their best to bust down on this crime, especially those in London who utilizes a “secret weapon” most people would not expect: a nun.

According to an article by the Guardian, Sister Ancy Mathew, a member for the Congregation of Adoratrices, is a nun that assists in raids of brothels for the London police department. No, Sister Ancy doesn’t partake in the actual sweep while wearing Kevlar and sporting weaponry. Instead, Sister Ancy specializes in attaining information that would prove vital for police officers. For her role, she waits in a police car near a brothel. Once the area is given an all clear for her safety, she exits the car and enters the brothel to talk to the women. The women often give her vital details of the trafficking operation, which she relays back to the police.

There is also a reason why the police themselves don’t ask for the information from the women themselves. According to India TV News, the criminals behind the trafficking ring have invariably lied to the victimized women and often encouraged them to fear the police. As a result, few of the women trust the police enough to be able to open up to them after they’ve been freed. This can be bad because police have a “golden hour” right after saving the girls: a short span of time they have to shut down the trafficking operation and catch the criminals behind it. With Sister Ancy Mathew, the women mostly feel secure and comfortable around her presence and are willing to spill the beans on their captors.

Kevin Hyland, the anti-slavery commissioner, confirmed this in the following statement.

“These victims need a lot of tender, loving care — they have been treated appallingly badly, and they are in a state of shock. Freeing them means removing them from the place where they have been living, and although that’s welcome, it’s also very frightening for them, because it takes them away from everything they’ve known.”

Sister Ancy Mathew and the Congregation of Adoratrices also provides the care that the freed women need through her charity named after the Biblical prostitute, Rahab. It is also through Rahab that the women are brought back to their home country prior to being trafficked.

“The police can’t provide round-the-clock care, but the Rahab team do manage to do that — and then the sisters are often able to use their church links to help resettle the women back in the countries they have been trafficked from, which is also fraught with difficulties and needs very careful handling.”

What do you think of Sister Ancy Mathew and her participation in stopping the sex trafficking rings in London? Do you admire her perseverance and dedication to helping these women?

[Image via Andy Hall]

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