On April 25, Pope Francis received participants in a meeting of Trinitarian International Solidarity, an apostolate of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity.

St. John of Matha (1160-1213) founded the Order; its founding charism was the redemption of slaves.

“This charism is flagrantly relevant today, unfortunately!”, Pope Francis told the Trinitarians. “It is so because even in our time, which boasts of having abolished slavery, in reality there are many, too many men and women, even children reduced to living in inhuman conditions, enslaved. And also because, as your conference rightly points out, religious freedom is violated, sometimes trampled upon in many places and in various ways, some crude and obvious, others subtle and hidden.”