This Monday will be Columbus Day, a federal holiday. Columbus has come under withering criticism in recent decades, mostly because of the mistreatment of Native Americans that resulted from Europeans immigrating to the Americas. I fail to see how that was his personal fault. The coming to the Americas was inevitable. With the development of better sailing vessels it was only a matter of time, if not Columbus it would have been someone else. Attached to the mistreatment of Natives was the slave trade. These were indeed evil practices and the Church led the way it bringing about their end. I bring this topic up because slavery is still among us and even increasing with very little notice or effort to stop it. One of the distressing attachments to the ongoing influx of people from south of our boarder is young girls and boys who are being brought to our nation to be sold for sexual entertainment. They have no identity, no proof that they even exist, so they are disposable. They disappear in death without notice, without record, without justice. This terrible evil is happening right now in our nation. So, I ask you to be alert. If you come across a young person, (child, teenager, or young adult), accompanied by an older adult and something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. Make mental notes, if you can snap an unnoticed picture with your phone do it, then call 911. You might be thinking, but what if it’s perfectly innocent? It might well be. But what if it’s not and you did nothing? So, watch and pray and by all means, act! Yours in Christ our Lord. Fr. Sid.