Life and Dignity of Human Persons as
Members of the Church
What is your understanding about human
dignity?
- Dignity is the right of a person to be valued
and respected for their own sake, and to be
treated ethically. It is of significance in
morality, ethics, law and politics as an
extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts
of inherent, inalienable rights.
What is a person?
 The core constitutes the being of a
person. The core is the source of his
dignity and worth as a person.
 The periphery constitutes the other
faculties of a person. This is about his
achievements, possessions and positions.
 The core is the “being” while the
periphery is in the “doing” or the
“having” domain.
 We are told that the most important of
the two is the core because this is the
being of the person.
 But the periphery is also important
although in a lesser degree. Taken
properly, the periphery adds flavor to
the core.
 Just like a gift that is wrapped
beautifully, a wrapper makes the gift so
attractive externally but wrappers are not
the real gifts.
 Gabriel Marcel said that man is an
incarnate subjectivity. For him, man is a
body but he is more than his body.
Man also, is a spirit.
 Because man is not only a body but also
a spirit; man has inner freedom and
autonomy. His freedom and autonomy
make him above animals and plants.
 Because of his freedom and dignity, man
is an end in itself, according to Kant.
 For Kant the autonomy of man is the
basis of his dignity. Because of his
dignity, man should never be used as a
mere instrument for others’ happiness
(Maboloc, 2012).
 In the political context, a person is
defined according to his citizenship. His
membership to a state or a society gives
him rights and privileges.
 Sometimes, his citizenship is the sole
basis of the granting of his rights and
privileges, not his being a person with
inherent rights and dignity. In some
association or groups, membership
signifies requirements.
 Hence, if you are not qualified you
cannot be a member, ergo you cannot
have rights and privileges that the
members of that organization enjoy.
Church Teachings on Life and Dignity
of Human Person
• The Catholic Church proclaims that
human life is sacred and that the dignity
of the human person is the foundation of
a moral vision for society.
• This belief is the foundation of all the
principles of our social teaching. In our
society, human life is under direct
attack in different forms; from abortion
to euthanasia and death penalty.
• The value of human life is also
being threatened by some scientific and
medical research, used as means for
experiment; such as cloning and
embryonic stem cell research.
• 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.
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church
says; "Christ, . . . in the very revelation of
the mystery of the Father and of his love,
 makes man fully manifest to himself and
brings to light his exalted vocation."
• It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible
God," that man has been created "in the
image and likeness" of the Creator.
• It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior that
the divine image, disfigured in man by
the first sin has been restored to its
original beauty and ennobled by the
grace of God. “The divine image is
present in every man. It shines forth in
the communion of persons, in the
likeness of the unity of the divine persons
among themselves” (CCC, 1701-1702)
• All people are created in the image of
God and thus, all human life, from
conception to natural death, is sacred.
• Through the mystery of Christ, we
become children of the Father and
temples of the Holy Spirit. God’s love for
all is the foundation of human dignity.
• The basic dignity that each person
possesses comes from God; therefore all
forms of discrimination are always
wrong. People take precedence over
things and structures. Systems are meant
to serve people. And people are meant to
serve and care for one another
• Scripture tells us repeatedly of God’s
love for us. We are called to see every
person through the eyes of God and to
love them because God loved them (and
us) first.
Scriptural Passages manifesting the
sanctity and dignity of human life
• Deuteronomy 10:17-19
“God loves the orphan, the widow, and
the stranger.”
• Psalms 139:13-16
“God formed each of us and knows us
intimately.”
• Proverbs 22:2
“The Lord is the maker of both rich and
poor.”
• Luke 10:25-37
“The good Samaritan recognized the
dignity in the other and cared for his
life.”
• John 4:1-42
“Jesus broke with societal and religious
customs to honor the dignity of the
Samaritan woman.”
• Romans 12: 9-18
“Love one another, contribute to the
needs of others, live peaceably with all.”
• Corinthians 3:16
“You are holy, for you are God’s temple
and God dwells in you.”
• Galatians 3:27-28
“All Christians are one in Christ Jesus.”
• James 2:1-8
“Honor the poor.”
• 1 John 3: 1-2
• “See what love the Father has for us,
that we should be called Children of
God.”
• 1 John 4:7-12
• “Let us love one another because love
is from God.”
On the dignity of the human person amidst
uniqueness and differences
• St. James said in James 2:1, “Do not try
to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our
glorified Lord, with the making of
distinction between classes of people.”
• We recognize the person as relational and
social. Christians hold the belief that
human beings are made in God’s image
and likeness (imago Dei), and therefore
the human person has an innate dignity
that must be honored.
• This way of looking at the person is
enhanced by the Christian understanding
of God as Trinity.
• For the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit are obviously interrelated, and their
interrelationships – the way each Person
is related to the Others – provide an
exemplar for right human relationships
too.
• If we are made in the image of this
Trinitarian God, it follows that we are
meant to relate as the Three Persons do.
• And among the qualities of the
interrelationships of Father, Son and
Holy Spirit are mutuality, respect,
equality (none is subordinate to any other
Person) and uniqueness.
• Even within the close relations of the
Three, as ancient Christian writers
envisaged the life of God, each divine
Person has the space and opportunity to
ensure that his uniqueness emerges.
• Acknowledging in this way the dignity of
every human being, irrespective of race,
gender, skin color, religion, ethnicity,
means that our modern talk of human
rights fits beautifully into Christian
thinking.
• Correspondingly, the development of
human rights theory, language and
legislation helps to reinforce Christian
faith in the dignity of each human person.
• Related concepts such as the principle of
participation, the common good,
solidarity and justice also complement
this; our dignity is connected to our
social and inter-personal nature.
• Thus, one finds in the social teaching of
the Church a constant attempt to balance
the individual (and his/her rights) with
the social (the corresponding duties that
accompany these rights).
• Therefore, while the dignity of the person
and his/her rights are constantly
acknowledged, it is understood against
the broader canvas of social obligation.
Teachings of the dignity of human life
based on the Church Tradition
• For Pope Francis, he says that “When
we fail to acknowledge as part of reality
the worth of a poor person, a human
embryo, a person with disabilities – to
offer just a few examples – it becomes
difficult to hear the cry of nature itself;
everything is connected.” (Laudato Si’,
117)
• The dignity of the individual and the
demands of justice require, particularly
today, that economic choices do not
cause disparities in wealth to increase in
an excessive and morally unacceptable
manner. (Caritas in Veritate, no. 32)
• 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. (Evangelii Gaudium,
153)
• Human persons are willed by God; they
are imprinted with God's image. Their
dignity does not come from the work
they do, but from the persons they are.
(St. John Paul II, On the Hundredth
Year [Centesimus annus], no. 11)
• All human beings, therefore, are ends to
be served by the institutions that make up
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 with each other, we should do so
with the sense of awe that arises in
the presence of something holy and
sacred. For that is what human beings
are: we are created in the image of God
(Gn 1:27). (USCCB, Economic Justice
for All, no. 28)
• As explicitly formulated, the precept
“You shall not kill” is strongly negative:
it indicates the extreme limit which can
never be exceeded. Implicitly, however,
it encourages a positive attitude of
absolute respect for life; it leads to the
promotion of life and to progress along
the way of a love which gives, receives
and serves. (St. John Paul II, The Gospel
of Life [Evangelium vitae],no. 54)
• This teaching rests on one basic
principle: individual human beings are
the foundation, the cause and the end of
every social institution. That is
necessarily so, for men are by nature
social beings. (St. John XXIII, Mother
and Teacher [Mater et Magistra], no.
219)
• There exist also sinful inequalities that
affect millions of men and women. These
are in open contradiction of the Gospel:
Their equal dignity as persons demands
that we strive for fairer and more
humane conditions. Excessive economic
and social disparity between individuals
and peoples of the one human race is a
source of scandal and militates
against social justice, equity, human
dignity, as well as social and
international peace. (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no. 1938)
• Whatever insults human dignity, such as
subhuman living conditions,
arbitrary imprisonment, deportation,
 slavery, prostitution, the selling of
women and 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 infamies indeed. They
poison human society, but they do more
harm to those who practice them than
those who suffer from the injury.
(Second Vatican Council, The Church in
the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes],
no. 27)

Persons are Gifts

• Persons are gifts from God to me that
come so wrapped so differently.
• Some so loosely, others so tightly but
wrappings are not the gifts
• I am a gift to others too that must be
given to you and you
• We all are persons and for this reason, a
wonderful gift of love