Call to decriminalise brothels in Portsmouth divides Catholics

Continued from Page One: Last year the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales called on the government to grant asylum to prostitutes. At present they can only be granted refuge if they inform on their employers.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church declares prostitution "a social scourge" as well as a sin, stating that it "does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit ... while it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offence can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure."
Also, the Church has always maintained that legalisation would only increase the lucrative trade. In Romania the Catholic aid agency Caritas is leading a campaign to highlight the link between legalisation and human trafficking, a global industry now worth £6.5 billion a year with 12 million people in forced labour, many of them in the sex industry.
Its stance has led it into conflict in eastern Europe,. where many politicians wish to legalise it. Earlier this year legalisation was discussed in the Bulgarian parliament, while Germany already has legal brothels, where women from Romania, the Czech Republic and the former Soviet Union are lured.
Bishop Petru Gherghel of Iasi, Romania, said earlier this year that legalising prostitution would simply help criminals to ruin more lives..
He said: "There have been thousands of girls hoping to get babysitting or waitress jobs who are tricked and wind up prostituted in Italy, Greece, Spain or who knows where. The spiritual and physical trauma is tremendous, Many never recover, even if they make it back home."
Women religious around the world are now at the forefront of the battle against sex trafficking. One of the biggest groups is the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which is active in over 70 countries.
In October more than 30 nuns from 26 nations launched the International Network of Religious Against Trafficking in Persons at a human trafficking conference in Rome.
Sister Susan Maloney, of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Marc announced that nuns "have committed to take on the great moral evil of human trafficking," which she said is the "great ministry of the 21st century."
While prostitution itself is not illegal in Britain, soliciting for sex, kerb-crawling and living off the earnings of a prostitute (pimping) are all illegal, making prostitution effectively illegal.