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Human Dignity -- for St. Vincent's Parish Bulletin by: Dennis Wells TOLERANCE is not good enough!! All of Catholic Social Teaching begins and ends with the issue of human dignity. Because the focus of these teachings is on the human person and on human inter-relations, there can really be no other starting and ending point than human dignity. Even though most "Cradle Catholics" were spiritually weaned on Tradition rather than on Scripture, these documents are very insistent on looking to Scripture for wisdom. You need look no further than the very beginning of Scripture (Gen 1: 26-27) to find the essence of Judeo-Christian-Muslim truth: all human persons are made in the image and likeness of God, our Creator. Throughout history, we have all distorted that particular truth to attempt to demonstrate that some of us are better replicas of the Original than are others; but the real truth is that we are all made in the image and likeness of an absolutely loving Creator. This scriptural understanding of the dignity of the human person is very clearly relational. Our dignity flows from our relationship with our Creator (and thus we are irreversibly related to one another). The contemporary secular view, however, claims that human persons find dignity strictly in themselves, in their own autonomy. This lack of a relational foundation has often put Catholic social teaching at odds with Western cultures/ societies. On the surface, both ideologies have similar stances on many social issues but if we truly believe that we share a relational bond then we are called to look deeper into how our actions affect each other's dignity. For instance, we have spent some time these past years looking at the evil of racism. The prevailing secular stance calls for TOLERANCE – if we “put-up” with one another then we can all live peacefully. This is a very good civil response, which is both pragmatic and utilitarian. Catholic Social Teaching, however, calls us to COMPASSION and UNITY – this is far beyond merely "putting-up" with each other. It is a relationship of embrace so that we can live in a community of justice, peace, and love — a community where the dignity of each individual is held with esteem. TOLERANCE is not good enough!! If human dignity flows from a common relationship with a loving Creator, how can any of us presume to extinguish the life of another human person, made in the image and likeness of that same Creator? The various political battles over human life – capital punishment, abortion, assisted suicide, stem cell research – call for each of us to do some reflection on exactly this: how is human dignity being upheld in our society? If we all truly believed that the source of our own dignity is the same source as that of our neighbors' dignity, how could there possibly be pipe-bombs placed in primary-schools in Belfast? How could Palestinians and Israelis be killing each other’s children? How could any terrorist/ insurgent still be winning the day anywhere on our planet? How could children in our own cities be living in sub-standard or dangerous housing with no future? Human dignity – a relational dignity – must be the measure by which we gauge our individual and collective actions! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Index, Catholic Social Teaching: Overview; 1)Human life & dignity, 2)Call to family, community/ participation, 3)Rights/Responsibilities, 4)Option for the poor/vulnerable, 5)Dignity of human labor, 6)Solidarity, 7)Stewardship of Creation; Summary: Catholic Social Teaching Look here for more links on Catholic Social Teaching |
Parish Mission Statement We, the people of St. Vincent's Parish in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri, are committed to following Christ, evangelizer of the poor. We do this through: |