By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – After Pope Francis entrusted two Vatican academies to study the problem of human trafficking, a group of women religious asked the pope to raise greater awareness in the Church about the issue by establishing a worldwide day of prayer and fasting.

“The pope was very interested in our suggestion and asked us what date we would like the day to be,” Consolata Sister Eugenia Bonetti told Catholic News Service (CNS).

“We told him Feb. 8 – the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita,” a Sudanese slave who found freedom in Italy and became a nun in the late 19th century.

She said the idea for a worldwide day of prayer came from “the need to do something that joins us together” to tackle the global problem; some dioceses and parishes are active on the issue while others are unaware or indifferent, she said.

Sister Eugenia, a leader among religious women in Italy working against human trafficking – particularly women and young girls forced into prostitution – was one of about 80 people attending a Nov. 2-3 working group on trafficking at the Vatican.

She talked to CNS Nov. 3 about her informal meeting with Pope Francis in late September when she and three other sisters from different religious congregations were invited to attend the pope’s early morning Mass at his Vatican residence.

They had written the pope, thanking him for his work and focus on the marginalized, and alerted the pope about the need for greater involvement by the Church, especially by religious congregations of men, parish priests and schools in curbing the demand for prostitution by promoting a “culture of respect.”

Sister Eugenia, who together with some 250 women religious through the Union of Major Superiors of Italy, has spent the past two decades fighting the illegal sex trade and helping victims