NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) — Calling the dignity of the human person “a primary doctrine” of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York told an audience at the University of Notre Dame Dec. 6 that it must prompt Catholics “to treat ourselves and others only with respect, love, honor and care.” That doctrine also means people must not be identified “with our urges, our flaws, our status, our possessions, our utility,” but each seen as “a child of God, his creation, modeled in his own image, destined for eternity,” he said….The Archbishop said, “My identity, my personhood … does not depend on whether or not I have a green card, a stock portfolio, a job, a home or even a college diploma,” Archbishop Dolan said. “Nor does my identity depend upon whom I am sexually attracted to, or to race, religion, gender, social status, bank account, passport or health insurance, but on my essence as a child of God.”…”When we mention Catholic doctrines, we usually mention the Trinity, the Incarnation, the redemption, the Eucharist,” the archbishop said. “I wonder why we never include the doctrine of the dignity of the human person? It’s pivotal; it’s way up there; it’s normative.” Despite what he called the “caricature of the church … that it had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the noble enterprise of defending human rights,” Archbishop Dolan said the Catholic doctrine of the dignity of the human person “startled the brutality of the Roman world with its emphasis on the protection of life, respect for the person, care for the vulnerable, (and) defense of women, babies, children, families, elders and even slaves.”
“It gave rise to the greatest system of health care, education and charity the world has ever known,” he added. The church that proclaims this doctrine “is not a shrill, crabby, naysaying nag, but a warm, tender, gracious mother who invites, embraces and nurtures her children, calling forth from within the truth, beauty and goodness she knows is within them,” the archbishop said.

The doctrine of human dignity dictates the church’s position on abortion, immigration and the death penalty, among other topics, he said. “If the preborn baby in the womb, from the earliest moments of his or her conception, is a human person — an ‘is’ that comes not from the catechism but from the biology textbook used by any sophomore in high school — then that baby’s life ought to be cherished and protected,” Archbishop Dolan said.

“If an immigrant from Mexico is a child of God, … then we ought to render him or her honor and a welcome, not a roar of hate, clenched fists and gritted teeth in response to the latest campaign slogan,” he added. “If even a man on death row has a soul, is a human person, an ‘is’ that cannot be erased even by beastly crimes he may have committed, then we ought not to strap him to a gurney and inject him with poison.”