“They will never be self-sufficient!" This is what a 70-year-old business owner who is protesting the closure of Paju City’s prostitution district said to a Paju City official.
Self-sufficiency means ‘living on one’s own strength’. During the 70-year history of the district, victims of prostitution lived isolated lives where it was difficult to support themselves. Most of them, whose days and nights are reversed, have solved their food, clothing, and shelter problems in confined spaces. The longer they worked in the red-light district, the more they forgot how to use public transportation, find directions, purchase goods, and conduct daily life.
The ‘Prostitution Prevention Act’ went into effect in 2004. Although this law has been on the books for exactly 20 years, prostitution is still being bought and sold in 12 red-light districts across the country, including Paju, the largest in Korea. They looked into the actions of Paju City, which declared the closure of red-light districts and allocated more than twice the amount of support funds compared to other local governments to help victims of prostitution become independent.
The Church’s View of Prostitution: “Prostitution is a crime and a disease of humanity”.
In the preface to the book “Women Crucified: The Shame of Human Trafficking in the Streets” written by a priest from the “Pope John XXIII Community” in 2019. Pope Francis stated, “People are not beings that can be bought and sold,” and asked, “Please courageously step forward in rescue and recovery activities for victims.”
The Catholic Church defines prostitution as a clear violation of human dignity and a social disaster. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Prostitution harms the dignity of the person who sells their body, reducing them to an instrument of sexual pleasure,” and “Those who pay also sin gravely against themselves” (paragraph 2355).
The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People expressed concern at the First International Pastoral Conference for the Liberation of Women on the Street held in Rome in 2005, stating that “sexual exploitation is an act of violence against women, an act that injures their dignity and a serious violation of their fundamental human rights.” It also expressed concern that “the number of women on the street is increasing dramatically worldwide due to a complex mix of economic, social, and cultural reasons.”
The final document produced by the pastoral conference stated that “the victims are torn to pieces and are psychologically and spiritually dead” and that “most of them have stories of violence, abuse, distrust, self-degradation, fear, and deprivation of opportunity” and that “what they seek is human relationships, love, security, affection, confidence and a better future for themselves and their families.”
Sister Hong Seong-sil, former director of the prostitution victim protection organization ‘Sonya’s House,’ stated, “Human dignity, which is to regard human sexuality given to us by God as noble and not to treat it as material or instrumental, is an important value that our church cannot give up, and it is the foundation of the life of a believer.”
Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan was the great-uncle of women in prostitution. Starting in the 1988 holiday season, Cardinal Kim frequently visited shelters for victims of prostitution and talked with them for three to four hours. The reason Cardinal Kim remembered and called the women by their names, supported them without anyone knowing, and even visited their funerals was because he considered them daughters of the Lord who lived lives of pain, prejudice, and suffering. This was the love he wanted the church to show them.
