Rights and

Responsibilities
The Catholic tradition teaches that
human dignity can be protected
and a healthy community can be
achieved only if human rights are
protected and responsibilities are
met.
Therefore, every person has a
fundamental right to life and a right to
those things required for human
decency. Corresponding to these
rights are duties and responsibilities--
to one another, to our families, and to
the larger society
 Scripture
Leviticus 25:35
When someone is reduced to
poverty, we have an obligation to help.
•Tobit 4:5-11
Give from what you have
received and do not turn away from the
poor.
•Proverbs 31:8-9
Open your mouth to speak
on behalf of those in need.
•Isaiah 1:16-17
Seek justice, rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, plead for the
widow.
JEREMIAH 22: 13-16
A LEGITIMATE
GOVERNMENT
UPHOLDS THE RIGHTS
OF THE POOR AND
VULNERABLE.
JEREMIAH 29:4-7
SEEK THE
WELFARE OF THE
CITY, FOR IN ITS
WELFARE YOU WILL
MATTHEW 25: 31-46
JUST AS YOU DID
IT TO THE LEAST OF
THESE, YOU DID IT TO
ME.
•Acts 4:32-35
There was not a
needy person among them.
•2 Corinthians 9:6-15
God’s gifts are
given to be shared.
•James 2:14-18
Faith without
works is dead.
•Luke 16:19-31
The rich man has a
responsibility to care
for Lazarus.
• Our Human rights come out of human
dignity. We are made in the image and
likeness of God that’s where the dignity
the human person comes from. We all
have the right to have a decent livelihood
but at the same time we have the
responsibility to contribute to the society
to the common good.
• The foundation is the basic right to life that
cannot be taken away.

• We require life in order to have all of our other

rights in order to fulfill our other
responsibilities. We are required to have more
than existence. Jesus promises us the
abundance one.
• Some basic human rights:

• Food, shelter, clothing, health care…

people have right to medical procedures.

• On top of the foundation of the basic rights for

survival there are more sophisticated rights like:

• - the right to participate in society

• - right to have search for God in freedom of religion,

to search the truth and live in integrity and be

respected.
• Rights and responsibilities are
reciprocal (mutual). We always have
a responsibility to others, to the
common good, to see our work and
resources as something that need
to be used to be build up society, to
be shared to those who are in need.
 WHAT DOES THE CHURCH SAY ABOUT
RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES?

• The protection of human dignity is the

foundation upon which an understanding of
rights and responsibilities rests. The human
person, made in God’s image and likeness, is
born into a community of relationships and is
social by nature.
•Rights and responsibilities
are seen as the demands of
upholding and defending
human dignity in the social,
economic and political
spheres.
• Rights begin with the most
fundamental of rights, the right to life
and include the right to those things
necessary for basic human survival.
The responsibilities begin with
responsibilities to one another, to
one’s family and to the larger society
 REFLECTION:

• How does this teaching on Rights

and responsibilities connect with
my life?