This morning, a new Declaration entitled “Dignitas Infinita” On Human Dignity was promulgated by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) after a comprehensive drafting process. The primary author of the document is DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. This declaration — which is expressly approved by Pope Francis and therefore magisterial — emphasizes the intrinsic and infinite worth of every human being, drawing from Christian anthropology, the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the teachings of Vatican II, Pope St. John Paul II, and Pope Francis.
The first half of the Declaration offers a comprehensive overview of the Church’s ever-expanding sense of the dignity of the person, and the second half applies these principles to address 13 contemporary challenges and misconceptions about human dignity. Most of the headlines this morning have focused on the document’s negative treatment of modern issues like gender theory and surrogacy. Others emphasize the Declaration’s statements in support the rights and dignity of the marginalized, including migrants, the poor, and victims of violence and exploitation.
Until recently, I was one of those “tuned-in” Catholics who would open up every new magisterial document from the Vatican and flip ahead, looking for the “good stuff” — whether and in what way the pope decided to address the hot-button issues that interested me or were deemed controversial in the press: abortion, contraception, human sexuality, marriage, divorce, immigration, war, or the death penalty.
I don’t know of a single person (including myself) who read (or even skimmed) Amoris Laetitia who didn’t jump forward to the much-debated Chapter 8 and its famous footnote allowing for the possibility that Catholics in irregular partnerships may be admitted to the sacraments in individual situations under certain conditions.
Such readers likely missed the pope’s advice in the seventh paragraph: “I do not recommend a rushed reading of the text. The greatest benefit, for families themselves and for those engaged in the family apostolate, will come if each part is read patiently and carefully,” nor is it likely they read his letter to Catholic author Stephen Walford, in which he wrote, “The Exhortation Amoris Laetitia is a unified whole, which means that, in order to understand its message, it must be read in its entirety and from the beginning.”
This morning, I decided to follow the pope’s advice and read the document closely from beginning to end, and before reading any commentary articles. I am now going slowly through the document again and will share insights and quotes that strike me as interesting and important. This analysis will take us through paragraph 16, and I expect to complete it in four parts. As I read the first half of Infinita Dignitas, a rich and expansive teaching on human dignity unfolded with each paragraph. The Declaration begins with a bold opening:
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, which is fully recognizable even by reason alone, underlies the primacy of the human person and the protection of human rights. In the light of Revelation, the Church resolutely reiterates and confirms the ontological dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed in Jesus Christ.
These words make a very bold natural law claim, that we can recognize the infinite dignity of every person by “reason alone,” and without the assistance of divine revelation. The phrase “infinite dignity” has appeared in many of Pope Francis’s documents and teachings, including Evangelii Gaudium and Fratelli Tutti, and the origin of the term goes back to a November 16, 1980 Angelus address delivered by Pope St. John Paul II during an apostolic pilgrimage to West Germany.
In Paragraph 7 of the Declaration, Fernandez teaches what is meant by the description of our infinite dignity as ontological, which “is indelible and remains valid beyond any circumstances in which the person may find themselves.” He contrasts this to other types of dignity, including moral dignity, social dignity, and existential dignity. But he stresses, “The most important among these is the ontological dignity that belongs to the person as such simply because he or she exists and is willed, created, and loved by God.”
This seems to be almost a direct rebuke of the highly-criticized understanding of human dignity put forth by Bishop Athanasius Schneider in the doctrinally problematic book Credo. According to Schneider, human dignity is contingent:
224. Is the dignity of the human person rooted in his creation in God’s image and likeness?
This was true for Adam, but with original sin the human person lost this resemblance and dignity in the eyes of God. He recovers this dignity through baptism, and keeps it as long as he does not sin mortally.
225. Then human dignity is not the same in all persons?
No. The human person loses his dignity in proportion to his free choice of error or evil; e.g., the dignity of Adolph Hitler and St. Francis of Assisi are not the same.
In a feeble attempt to defend Schneider’s position, Peter Kwasniewski offers a series of arguments that the most important sense of human dignity is moral, while suggesting that our intrinsic, ontological dignity is less important. He writes, “dignity without qualification should be named from the ultimate end, and in this sense, a man who fails to achieve divine likeness and the beatific vision has lost his dignity—the dignity that counts ‘in the eyes of God’ and for a creature’s own well-being.”
Fernandez offers an important corrective to this notion that moral dignity is superior in Dignitas Infinita, writing that because moral dignity depends on the exercise of free will and that those who commit evil “seem to have lost any trace of humanity and dignity.” This shines a light on the difference “between the moral dignity that de facto can be ‘lost’ and the ontological dignity that can never be annulled. And it is precisely because of this latter point that we must work with all our might so that all those who have done evil may repent and convert.” In other words, ontological dignity is more important than moral dignity because it can never go away and must always be recognized.
Later in the Declaration, Fernandez explains the development of the concept of human dignity, and clarifies that human dignity is bestowed by God and no one else: “It is essential to point out that dignity is not something granted to the person by others based on their gifts or qualities, such that it could be withdrawn. Were it so bestowed, it would be given in a conditional and alienable way, and then the very meaning of dignity (however worthy of great respect) would remain exposed to the risk of being abolished. Instead, dignity is intrinsic to the person: it is not conferred subsequently (a posteriori), it is prior to any recognition, and it cannot be lost. All human beings possess this same intrinsic dignity, regardless of whether or not they can express it in a suitable manner” (no. 15).
Fernandez reminds us of the important words in the Vatican II declaration Dignitatis Humanae, “contemporary man is becoming increasingly conscious of the dignity of the human person; more and more people are demanding that men should exercise fully their own judgment and a responsible freedom in their actions and should not be subject to the pressure of coercion but be inspired by a sense of duty” (16). This principle has continued to flourish in Catholic thought, with subsequent development on matters such as war and the death penalty. In the same paragraph, Fernandez is adamant that this is no small claim. He writes, “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” (emphasis added).
This is another dramatic statement from the Magisterium. But a document called Infinita anything might reasonably be expected to have a good number of them.
To be continued…
Image: Presentation in the Holy See Press Office of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s ‘Dignitas Infinita.’ Vatican Media.
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
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