April 21, 2024 - "Dignitas infinita"

Cardinal Gregory was in Rome recently for a Papal Foundation Board Meeting and to receive the Rector’s Award at the annual Rector’s Dinner at the Pontifical North American College where a number of Washington seminarians study for the priesthood.  While in Rome, Cardinal Gregory gave an interview to Vatican News where he spoke about human dignity, particularly Dignitas infinita, the recently released Vatican Declaration on human dignity. I want to highlight some points he made on that occasion.
 
Cardinal Gregory told the interviewer that Dignitas infinita is “probably the most comprehensive summary” of Church teaching “that could be issued at this time.”
 
Cardinal Gregory acknowledges that Dignitas infinita does not shy away from “hot-button” issues and has generated some controversy in some of the positions taken in the document. Then he adds, “But if you take the document as a whole, it is not a document about one specific issue beyond the fact that it treats human individuals, human people, as dignified in a way that is irreplaceable, that we never lose the dignity that God entrusts to us as He creates us.” Cardinal Gregory remarks that Dignitas infinita is “humble in its context but is also very, vey deeply rooted in Catholic moral and anthropological teachings.” At the same time, he thinks that Dignitas infinita will be a “challenge” for people. “Everyone—maybe that is an overstatement—people will probably find something they will have to think about.”  “And to be perfectly honest, I think that’s the sign of a successful document.  It affirms that which you understand, accept, hold, or cling to, but it also stretches you to consider other dimensions of our ecclesial life, of our social life, that may pose a challenge.”
 
To illustrate this, Cardinal Gregory cites the example of the death penalty.  Our Archbishop notes that as the Catholic Church “continually strengthened its opposition to capital punishment,” moving toward the position that is never really justified. “And for a number of people, that’s going to be an issue,” Cardinal Gregory says, while emphasizing that Dignitas infinita insists that even people who have committed heinous crimes “have not lost the dignity that they had from the day of their conception.”
 
Cardinal Gregory then highlighted a number of issues of critical importance for the Archdiocese of Washington, notably the treatment of LGBTQ+ people and individuals concerned about gender identity. Specifically, he says that “[t]he document has to both recognize their human dignity, but also call them to accept and realize the fact God has given them the dignity of an identity in their creation.”
 
The dignity of our migrant community is another area to which Cardinal Gregory calls our attention. At times migrants “are being denigrated” by those who have “very strong feelings” about immigration, while at the same time, questions are raised about how to “admit and respect people who come to our borders looking for the same life advantages” that the ancestors of current residents sought when they came to America in the past.
 
Cardinal Gregory believes that Dignitas infinita “is a very balanced document, and a very balanced way to look at the whole range of issues that call to mind [the question] ‘How can we better respect human dignity at every moment of its existence.”
 
Until next week,
Fr. John