Station 10

The artist's comment

The setting is depraved. In the foreground a young girl looks out beyond the painting with feigned adult indifference, signifying that the world of childhood is no longer hers, for it has been stolen from her. The flowers in her hair symbolize lost innocence. Someone has taken her by the hand and led her against her will (her feet have been cropped out of the picture to suggest her loss of freedom, her inability to go her own way) in this gray world where there are no Technicolor dreams.

In the background, there is the sordid world of prostitution, made up of children and of wicked old men.

The setting suggests the Eastern world, where the prostitution of children is particularly rampant, but the image in the foreground was inspired from a photo of Brooke Shields as a child. This photo and others were the basis for a 1970 trial against the photographer Garry Gross which resulted in a campaign against the sexual exploitation of children.

In 1993 Pope John Paul II expressed “horror over the degrading practice of sex tourism.” The Senegal newspaper headlines upon my arrival there decried the number of European women tourists who come in search of teenage boys who cruise the strips of beach hotels. Our international novitiate at Nianing is located along one such resort beach.

Sex customers, fearful of aids, are turning to younger and more innocent prey. As a result, the prostitution of children has skyrocketed worldwide in recent years. In Bogotá, the number of prostitutes under thirteen has quintupled since 1987. “A whole generation of young girls and boys is being turned into commerce by Westerners lured by governments hungry for tourist dollars,” claims the international coordinator for a group called End Child Prostitution.

Most parents who hand their children over don’t understand what kind of “jobs” are being offered them. “At night, I sleep and cry. No one ever sees my tears,” says one 13-year old.

Some girls feel so much pain that they block out the past and even forget their parents’ names, according to Sister Michele, who runs a therapy center for girl prostitutes. (El Colombiano, September 16, 1996; The World & I, Feb. 1995)

Sexual abuse of young people by trusted adults—relatives, teachers, brothers, and clergy—brings the hopelessness of sex abuse closer to home, as a recent report I read in a Rome newspaper shows: At 11, Carla’s parents confided her to a neighbor couple for after-school care. For a whole school year the husband subjected Carla to abuse, profiting from his wife’s frequent absence due to their handicapped daughter’s medical treatments. He began telephoning friends to join him and invited them to take their turn with her. Carla kept silent until she tried to throw herself off the balcony of her apartment. (Il Messaggero, July 7, 1996)

We give voice to the prayer of sexually abused children

Psalm 53

Everything is corrupt, depraved; not a good man is left. God looks down from heaven on men to see if any are wise, if any seek God. All have left the right path; depraved, everyone. There is not a good man left, no, not even one. Will these evil-doers not understand? They are destroying us.