A ministry of Awareness Raising, Education and Advocacy

“…the charism of Mercy impels us, to stand with those who are poor, and to work for social and ecological justice”

Impels is a strong verb, with powerful meaning – motivate to action, urge forward, encourage. It is true that all Mercy ministry is motivated by the charism of Mercy. MECPATHS is one of these ministries. Established in 2013 as a not-for-profit organisation, MECPATHS is Ireland’s only organisation dedicated exclusively to addressing the issue of Child Trafficking. The ministry operates under the trusteeship of CLT and is run by Ann Mara, Education Manager and J.P. O’Sullivan, Networking and Communications Manager.

Care of Vulnerable Children – a traditional ministry of Mercy

The care of vulnerable children was always dear to Catherine. While still living at Coolock, she was caring for nine children, all orphans, seven relatives and two other children who had been abandoned in the slums. Later she took a newborn baby home with her to Baggot Street. when the mother died in the Cholera depot in Townsend, forgetting that the baby would need a wet nurse! Children running wild in the streets of Kingstown moved Catherine to give over some of her property to the parish in order to provide them with a school and rescue them from the dangers of the streets.

We are told that while snatching some sleep as she cared for Mrs Callaghan, Catherine had troubled dreams of vulnerable children, deprived of their natural protectors. Seared also in her memory was a lamentable incident that gave concrete shape to her earlier disturbing dreams. A young servant girl had come to her seeking protection from the sexual advances of her employer. Catherine failed to secure protection for the girl because of admission procedures at a place of refuge and the girl could never be located by Catherine again. Catherine had no difficulty in deciding what she would do with any resources that would come her way: the care of vulnerable children and young distressed women were her first priority. It is no wonder then that the charism of the congregation she founded was expressed in a particular care for those in need of this care.

The Congregation’s fidelity to this ministry has taken many forms over the last two centuries. Today, MECPATHS, as a ministry addressing child trafficking, gives powerful expression to Catherine’s dream in regard to vulnerable children.

Child Trafficking

Anyone can become a victim of human trafficking, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, age, gender or socio-economic status. However, children are especially vulnerable to being targeted by traffickers and being caught in exploitative situations.

Child trafficking is defined as the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt” of a child for the purpose of exploitation. A child is a person under 18 years of age.

Child trafficking takes many forms including, among others, the following:

Forced labour, Domestic servitude, Child Sexual Exploitation, Forced Criminality/Child Criminal Exploitation, Forced Begging.

MECPATH’S  Ministry

MECPATHS advocates for child safeguarding through collaborative action, awareness-raising, and education. It achieves this by facilitating workshops and training opportunities for frontline and emerging professionals across disciplines including Social Work, Healthcare, Education, Community and Youth Work, Hospitality, and Academia.

Some of the key activities of 2025 give an indication of the scope of MECPATHS work. A Report on these can be read here

Impelled by the charism

The upcoming bi-centenary of the founding of the congregation is a good time to consider the relevance of the charism to the needs of the day.

One definition of charism is ‘the deep story rising up to meet the signs/needs of the time’.  The ‘signs of our times’ are screaming loud reports of vulnerable children: Consider the AI Grok app, the Epstein files, the increasing number of court cases dealing with abuse of children in families, the disappearance and murder of a growing number of children, the conviction and detention of 15 year olds for involvement in criminal rings, the inadequate care of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.

MECPATHS, on behalf of all of us stands with trafficked and vulnerable children. No doubt, Catherine’s nightmares about vulnerable children would be eased by this fact.