Celebrating the feast of the Assumption just three days after visiting a group of young women rescued from the sex trade, Pope Francis prayed for all exploited women and girls.
"The Lord bows down to the lowly in order to raise them up as is proclaimed in the Magnificat," Mary's hymn of praise to God, the Pope said yesterday.
"Mary's canticle leads us to think of many painful situations today and particularly those of women overpowered by the burdens of life and the drama of violence, women who are slaves of the abuse of the powerful, girls forced into inhuman work, women forced to surrender body and spirit to the greed of men," Pope Francis told thousands of people gathered to pray the Angelus with him.
