Mount Saint Mary College will host the annual St. Martin de Porres Lecture on Social Justice, “Walking Together Toward Freedom: Human Trafficking, Social Justice, and the Catholic Call to Human Dignity,” on Tuesday, November 3, at 4 p.m.
The talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Dominican Center, Room 218, located on the campus at 330 Powell Ave., Newburgh, N.Y.
Presented by trauma therapist, social worker, and anti-human trafficking advocate Danielle Heitmann Grossano, MA, MSW, LICSW, the lecture will examine human trafficking as a profound violation of human dignity that treats persons created in the image of God as commodities. Through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, trauma-informed practice, and spirituality, Grossano will explore how the community is called to encounter those impacted by exploitation with compassion and a fierce commitment to justice, working against the systems that perpetuate the demand for exploited persons.
Drawing on her direct service work with trafficking survivors, advocacy experiences, and vocation as a lay Dominican, Grossano will connect St. Martin de Porres’ spirit of bearing witness to the marginalized with the writings of St. Josephine Bakhita, Frederick Douglass, and other survivors of trafficking. She will speak to the realities of trafficking both locally and globally, offering attendees concrete steps to help address the crisis.
Rooted in the Catholic call to faith and action, the presentation invites attendees to consider what happens when we truly see the suffering of another and allow it to change how we live, highlighting how faith, vocation, and discernment can become instruments in the work of freedom and human flourishing.
Grossano is a graduate of Boston College’s dual master’s program in Social Work and Theology and Ministry, and is a temporarily professed lay Dominican. She spent five years providing clinical care to survivors of human trafficking and currently serves as Legislative Co-Chair of the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking.