Congreso ProVida 2024
La Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos los invita. ¡Aparte la fecha!
From the Friars: Dignitas Infinita
Last Monday, many of us witnessed one of God’s most beautiful gifts to His people: a total eclipse of the sun. On that same day, Pope Francis issued one of the most beautiful teachings of his pontificate: Dignitas Infinita.
It begins, “Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter. This principle…underlies the primacy of the human person and the protection of human rights” (DI, 1). Its origin is Our Father in Heaven “…who loves all men and women with an infinite love.” (DI, 6). The document stresses that human beings possess this “ontological dignity … simply because he or she exists and is willed, created, and loved by God” (DI, 7).
Our value is not bestowed or granted to us by others, such that it could be withdrawn or taken away by them. “All human beings possess this same intrinsic dignity, regardless of whether or not they can express it in a suitable manner” (DI, 15). Here reference is made to those who cannot speak up for themselves, like the unborn or those mentally incapacitated. Likewise, even those who having committed the most heinous crimes still do not lose their human dignity (cf. DI, 34). How could one lose what is infinite and bestowed by God Himself?
While reiterating the Church’s teachings against abortion, euthanasia and unjust war, among others, the document expresses counter-cultural insights against gender theory, attempts to change one’s sex, and digital violence (as seen in addictions and cyberbullying). Pope Francis reminds us that “creation is prior to us, and must be received as a gift” (DI, 60). Likewise, sexual difference is not only the “greatest possible difference that exists between living things…but it is also the most beautiful and most powerful.” With men and women, this difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities. It becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us: our beloved children (cf. DI, 58). That is something we must never forget.
The eclipse of the sun is indeed beautiful; the eclipse of the human person, endowed with infinite dignity, is not.
–Fr. Andrew