Former principal now works against human trafficking

Although she no longer goes by the name Sister Monica, that's how Sister Carmel Spratt, FMDM, is remembered by old friends at Holy Spirit Church and School in East Greenbush.

Originally from County Waterford, Ireland, Sister Spratt now serves at the other end of the world in Australia. But, recently, she returned to the Albany Diocese to visit the school where she taught for 21 years.

Sister Spratt, now 70, was one of the first teachers at Holy Spirit School when it opened in the 1960s. Four other sisters from her order, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood, accompanied her to America to staff the school.

Sister Spratt eventually became principal at Holy Spirit and held that position until 1983, when she and all her companions were recalled to England, where her order is based, and reassigned.

During her first sabbatical in 50 years of missionary work, Sister Spratt decided to come back to the U.S. for rest, relaxation and continuing spiritual education.

"I just returned from a month-long retreat in Texas. It was so very peaceful, just what I needed," she remarked.

Anti-trafficking

Silence and contemplative prayer are far different than the busy schedule she has kept since 2002: Sister Spratt serves in a leadership role for a province of 320 sisters around the globe, and has helped to establish two overseas offices to stop the illegal trafficking of young women and girls from Thailand and the Philippines into Australia.

"One doesn't think about Australia as being a place where young women and girls are illegally taken for sexual services, but it is a very big problem indeed," she remarked.

The nun explained that the problem exists in many Asian countries, where young girls are separated from their families when they're as young as five. Poor families are given money in exchange for allowing the girls to work in Australia, supposedly as nannies or maids.

"The families have no idea, of course, what the real intent of the traffickers is: to use the girls illegally in brothels as prostitutes," Sister Spratt said. "Once the families learn what is happening to their daughters, they often will have nothing more to do with them because of religious and societal beliefs."

Strong together

Several other religious orders have joined the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood to stem the illegal operations.

"We voted to work for at least the next six years in this effort," Sister Spratt said.

Together, the nuns have developed advocacy measures and lobby governments to increase awareness of the crisis. Even elderly sisters participate through prayer and letter-writing campaigns.

"We write, disseminate and distribute materials to every source we can think of," Sister Spratt declared. "We have sisters that serve as airport spotters who watch for girls being taken out of the Philippines and Thailand to Australia.

"These spotters hand the girls literature in their own language that gives them information about illegal human trafficking and phone numbers to call if they suspect they have been illegally abducted. We want to increase their awareness of what is happening to them. Often, they have no idea until they reach their destination."

The religious orders work in tandem with Franciscans International, a non-governmental organization that has general consultative status at the United Nations and addresses human rights issues. In collaboration with that group, Sister Spratt helped her order open an office in Bangkok several years ago.

Shut it down

One of its first orders of business was to stop a Thai woman who was part of a ring of human traffickers in the city.

"There was a particular brothel that was moving Filipino girls into Melbourne at an alarming rate," Sister Spratt recalled. "Because of the Australian anti-slavery law [and the sisters' work], the courts were able to close the operation down."

After her sabbatical, Sister Spratt hopes to go back to what she calls "the margins. I'd like to work with the very poor, perhaps the immigrants in Australia.

"Right now, we're sending a lot of our sisters to Africa, so I might end up there," she mused. "That would be fine; there is a lot of new life coming out of Africa. Many of our new sisters are from there.

"When I joined the Missionaries, I knew I'd be doing the Holy Spirit's work, so I'm excited about my future. I can hardly wait for my next assignment."

(Sister Carmel Spratt -- her birth name -- dropped the moniker of "Monica" when she was sent to Australia and officials there would not accept her religious name as her legal one. Sister Spratt last visited East Greenbush for Holy Spirit School's 25th anniversary in 1987; she has kept up a correspondence with some of her former students ever since. An official Rensselaer County resolution drawn up to welcome Sister Carmel noted that as a teacher and principal, "she was able to shape the lives of a generation of students, helping provide a quality education and sound spiritual foundation for their future lives.")

(05/22/08) [[In-content Ad]]