Catholic Woman Wins Prize For Helping Girls And Women Leave Prostitution
'Believe in Yourself' is but one of many charitable works conducted by Catholic missionaries around the world.
The Pontifical Mission Societies (PMO) has awarded a prize to Sister Milagros García López for her work helping women in the sex industry of Cape Verde. Also receiving a prize is Radio María-Spain for its work to increase public aware of Catholic missions.
Sister Milagros García (60) was born in southern Spain and is a member of the Adoratrices Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, a Spanish congregation founded in 1856 by Saint María Micaela to free women from prostitution. The Adoratrices serve in 25 countries in support of over 11,000 women through social programs, teaching centers, and shelters.
Sister Milagros has been a missionary to the island nation off the coast of Africa for six years, offering counseling and care to women and teenage victims of sexual exploitation, human trafficking, prostitution and sexist violence. The Adoratrices started the Kredita na Bo (Believe in Yourself) Project in 2016 to help girls and women leaving behind prostitution and enslavement. In addition, the congregation shares the Gospel in places where the faith has been erased, such Sao Vicente, an island of the Cape Verde archipelago.
This year, Radio María-Spain celebrates its 25th anniversary of publicizing the missionary work of the Catholic Church. Church in Mission is one of its programs, which is directed by Father José María Calderón with help from young people active in the Diocesan Delegation of Missions of the Archdiocese of Madrid. Radio Maria-Spain also recounts the lives of missionaries through its The Adventure of Faith program, which aims to transmit “to listeners that all Christians are called to the mission."
Other Radio María-Spain programming include Little Missionary Stories, where anecdotes from the lives of missionaries are told; Impossible Mission, which reports on efforts by the Pontifical Mission Societies, and Apostles of America, which tells the history of the Evangelization of the Americas by Spanish missionaries.
Currently, the Catholic Church has 1,126 mission territories, which correspond to nearly 40 percent of the Earth's surface and which need the Pontifical Mission Societies for their material and spiritual support. They are located in 139 countries.
Among the congregations active in taking the Faith to non-Christian lands is the Order of Saint Elijah, which was founded in Argentina and is active in Africa and Asia. Missionaries of the order have announced the Gospel in perilous places, and have liberated Christians from slavery.