{"id":9215,"date":"2022-07-08T20:50:25","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T20:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/?p=9215"},"modified":"2022-07-08T20:50:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T20:50:55","slug":"life-and-dignity-of-the-human-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/life-and-dignity-of-the-human-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Life and Dignity of the Human Person"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Catholic Church\u00a0 proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is\u00a0 the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of\u00a0 all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human life is under\u00a0 direct attack from abortion and euthanasia. The value of human life is being\u00a0 threatened by cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and the use of the death\u00a0 penalty. The intentional targeting of civilians in war or terrorist attacks is always wrong. Catholic teaching also calls on us to work to avoid war. Nations must protect the right to life by finding increasingly effective ways to prevent conflicts and resolve them by peaceful means. We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.<\/p>\n
When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities \u2013 to offer just a few examples \u2013 it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. (Pope Francis,\u00a0On Care for Our Common Home<\/em>\u00a0[Laudato Si’<\/a>], no. 117)<\/p>\n Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape. Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised \u2013 they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”. (Pope Francis,\u00a0The Joy of the Gospel<\/em>\u00a0[Evangelii Gaudium<\/a>], no. 153)<\/p>\n The dignity\u00a0 of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that\u00a0 economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive\u00a0 and morally unacceptable manner. (Pope Benedict XVI,\u00a0Charity\u00a0 in Truth<\/em>\u00a0[Caritas in Veritate<\/a><\/em>], no. 32)<\/p>\n Human persons are\u00a0 willed by God; they are imprinted with God’s image. Their dignity does not come\u00a0 from the work they do, but from the persons they are. (St. John Paul II,\u00a0On the Hundredth Year\u00a0<\/em>[<\/a>Centesimus annus]<\/a><\/em>, no. 11)<\/p>\n The\u00a0 basis for all that the Church believes about the moral dimensions of economic\u00a0 life is its vision of the transcendent worth — the sacredness — of human\u00a0 beings. The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is\u00a0 the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured.<\/p>\n All\u00a0 human beings, therefore, are ends to be served by the institutions that make up\u00a0 the economy, not means to be exploited for more narrowly defined goals. Human personhood must be respected with a reverence that is religious. When we deal\u00a0 with each other, we should do so with the sense of awe that arises in the\u00a0 presence of something holy and sacred. For that is what human beings are: we\u00a0 are created in the image of God (Gn 1:27<\/a>). (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,\u00a0Economic Justice for All<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0no. 28)<\/p>\n Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of\u00a0 the Word of God who was made flesh (cf.\u00a0Jn 1:14<\/a>), is entrusted\u00a0 to the maternal care of the Church. Therefore every threat to human dignity and\u00a0 life must necessarily be felt in the Church’s very heart; it cannot but affect\u00a0 her at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God,\u00a0 and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in all the\u00a0 world and to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15). (St. John Paul II,\u00a0The\u00a0 Gospel of Life\u00a0<\/em>[<\/a>Evangelium vitae<\/a><\/em>],\u00a0<\/em>no. 3)<\/p>\n As explicitly formulated, the precept \u201cYou shall not\u00a0 kill\u201d is strongly negative: it indicates the extreme limit which can never be\u00a0 exceeded. Implicitly, however, it encourages a positive attitude of absolute\u00a0 respect for life; it leads to the promotion of life and to progress along the\u00a0 way of a love which gives, receives and serves. (St. John Paul II,\u00a0The Gospel of Life\u00a0<\/em>[Evangelium vitae<\/a>],no. 54)<\/p>\n This teaching rests on one basic principle:\u00a0 individual human beings are the foundation, the cause and the end of every\u00a0 social institution. That is necessarily so, for men are by nature social beings. (St. John XXIII,\u00a0Mother and Teacher\u00a0[<\/a>Mater et Magistra<\/a><\/em>],<\/em>\u00a0no. 219)<\/p>\n There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions\u00a0 of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel: Their equal\u00a0 dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane\u00a0 conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and\u00a0 peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against\u00a0 social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international\u00a0 peace. (Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>no. 1938)<\/p>\n Whatever\u00a0 insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary\u00a0 imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and\u00a0 children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are\u00a0 infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who\u00a0 practice them than those who suffer from the injury. (Second Vatican Council,\u00a0The Church in the Modern World\u00a0[<\/a>Gaudium et Spes<\/a><\/em>], no. 27)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Life and Dignity of the Human Person The Catholic Church\u00a0 proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is\u00a0 the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of\u00a0 all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human life is under\u00a0 direct attack…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Life-and-Dignity.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Life-and-Dignity.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Frank O'Brien","author_link":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/author\/frankobrien\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9217,"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9215\/revisions\/9217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaleenparish.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}