“We will give priority to ministry among immigrants, the elderly, and women and children who suffer violence, discrimination, poverty and homelessness” (Acts of Chapter 2008).
The dignity of the human person is rooted in his or her creation in the image and likeness of God. It is in Christ, “the image of the invisible God,” (Col 1:15) that humans have been imbued with the characteristics that set them apart from other species and require of them a set of behaviors that reflects God’s love and compassion. “Every human being is a person, namely, endowed with intelligence and free will and therefore has rights and duties.”
Inherent in who we are as persons created in the image of God is the natural right to exist, to be free, to respect others and be respected, the right to our good name, to the freedom to know the truth of our existence; and, the right, within “the limits of the moral order and the common good, to freedom of speech and publication, and to freedom to pursue whatever profession that one may choose.”
The human person has the “natural right to share in the benefits of culture, and hence to receive a good general education, and a technical or professional training consistent with the degree of educational development in the person’s own country. Furthermore, a system must be devised for affording gifted members of society the opportunity of engaging in more advanced studies, with a view to occupying, as far as possible, positions of responsibility in society in keeping with their natural talent and acquired skill.”
Human rights are grounded in truth as we know it, and these truths allow us to realize ourselves as persons through participation in basic good. This truth of the rights and freedom of the person, one and inseparable, is to be recognized before society and the state, unrestrained by geographical location or cultural experience. “But such an order-universal, absolute and immutable in its principles-finds its source in the true, personal and transcendent God. God is the first truth, the sovereign good, and as such the deepest source from which human society-if it is to be properly constituted, creative, and worthy of man’s dignity-draws its genuine vitality.”
Pacem in Terris (Establishing Universal Peace In Truth, Justice, Charity, And Liberty), Pope John XXIII, 196
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Justice and Peace
