Canada May 16, 2024
New Vatican document a ‘summary of Catholic teaching’ on human dignity: Canadian bishops
By The B.C. Catholic
Condemning offences against human dignity ranging from human trafficking and migrant abuse to gender theory, abortion, and euthanasia, a new Vatican document offers “a summary of Catholic teaching on the nature and source of human dignity,” say Canada’s Catholic bishops.
“By naming and condemning the above violations of human dignity, Dignitas Infinita is an example of the comprehensiveness of Catholic Social Teaching,” said the bishops in a summary of the document released by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Catholic teaching “proceeds consistently from its principles (in this case, the infinite dignity of every human being, in both body and soul) and does not coincide with any political party or secular ideology,” said the bishops.
Dignitas Infinita is divided into four sections, including a historical review of the concept of dignity, the Church’s existing teachings of the equal dignity of all people, and an examination of how the concept of dignity provides a foundation for human rights and duties.
It also condemns a number of serious present-day violations of human dignity including surrogacy, war, and gender theory, among others.
The document reaffirms the Church commitment to its teaching that “every human being, at any stage of development from conception to extreme old age or disability, possesses this infinite dignity,” said the bishops.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernandez, the Vatican’s top doctrinal watchdog, said the document is as much a reflection of Pope Francis’ pastoral thinking on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy, and gender ideology as it is a summary of the Church’s magisterial teaching.
This document is “about gathering here and consolidating what the last pontiffs have said on this great topic and to summarize the innovation offered by the current pope,” Cardinal Fernandez, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said during a press conference at the Vatican.
“The Church has also learned the hard way, going through difficult phases,” he added. “It has also learned to talk to the world by listening to society.”
The new document states that “the Church’s magisterium progressively developed an ever-greater understanding of the meaning of human dignity, along with its demands and consequences, until it arrived at the recognition that the dignity of every human being prevails beyond all circumstances.”
At the same time, Cardinal Fernandez explained, the document reflects Pope Francis’ pastoral priorities, noting that the theme of human dignity is “so present in the thought of Pope Francis” as well as “in his attitudes, in his way of treating the sick, the criminals, the forgotten, in the way he listens.”
Dignitas Infinita (“Infinite Dignity”) has been in the works for the past five years but was significantly reworked following the input of “various experts” who met at a “consulta ristretta” held on Oct. 4, 2021. Pope Francis approved the document on March 25 and subsequently ordered its publication.
The document is unequivocal in its condemnation of abortion, noting that “the acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behavior, and even in law itself is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense.”
The document also addresses a range of new issues, including surrogacy, which “violates” the dignity of both the mother and the child, who “becomes a mere object,” as well as “gender theory,” which it describes as “extremely dangerous.”
On the question of gender theory it states: “Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the Gospel.”
With respect to sex change, the document notes: “It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”
Cardinal Fernandez reiterated this point during the press conference, noting that the document addresses the topic of sex change, reflecting on the importance of “accepting the truth as it is.”
He noted the socially pervasive belief that man is “omnipotent” and “thinks that with his intelligence, and his will, he is capable of building everything as if there was nothing that came before him, as if there was no reality that was given to him.”
But on the question of sex change, he noted that while there is “a deeper issue” that is not “seen,” there are “pastoral consequences, the principle of welcoming everyone, which is clear in the words of Pope Francis, he always says it: everyone, everyone.”