what's behind the Christian view well that each individual human being no matter what their their economic status or educational background or where they were born or what their race or gender is that every human being is created by God more to it Redeemed by Christ more to it destined for eternal life and from those theological convictions comes this idea that each individual is the subject of dignity [Music] well the Vatican just came out with a document called dignitas infinita and there's been a lot of commentary upon it because of what it says about gender Theory
and so on but I want to back away a bit from that issue and look at three General themes that I think are are really worth spending some time with first of all the title itself uh the infinite Dignity of the human person now I've bet a lot of people especially in the west if you talk about the Dignity of the individual person would say well yeah of course that's true but I want to suggest it's that of course it's true it's not at all the right response if you look at political Arrangements and cultural
assumptions across the ages and across the cultures you'll find lots of exceptions to the view that each individual human person is a subject of infinite dignity look in the classical world I mean that the Upper Crust of society maybe was worthy of of you know dignity but the ordinary person no way Julius Caesar kills they they estimate a million people in his in his campaign in in Gaul and no one called him to T ask for it as though he was violating people's dignity then you know come right up Through the Ages to our own
time look at the totalitarianisms of the last century the Dignity of each individual human being come on in my own lifetime in MA China in Soviet Russia I mean there was an enormous disrespect Nazi Germany obviously uh for the the Dignity of the individual what I want to draw attention to is how peculiar and I would say with Tom Holland the British historian how distinctively Christian this view is the the fact that we take it for granted in the west is the result of our coming of age in a culture that's still largely determined by
Christian assumptions what's behind the Christian view well that each individual human being no matter what their their economic status or educational background or where they were born or what their race or gender is that every human being is created by God more to it Redeemed by Christ more to it destined for eternal life and from those theological convictions comes this idea that each individual is the subject of dignity that's why I think it's wonderful actually that it's the pope it's it's the greatest representative of biblical religion on Earth who's making this claim about human dignity
now watch it here's the implication watch it when as many in the west are suggesting let's get rid of old you know Christianity old oppressive Christianity well may I suggest be very very careful about that because you rip this plant out of the soil of Christianity I think you'll find that the belief in human dignity evenesses pretty quickly here's the second kind of General Motif that really struck me when I read the document and I've talked about it before but the wonderful strangeness of Catholic Social teaching what I mean here is it is simply impossible
to um categorize Catholic Social teaching according to our clunky um categories of left and right is Catholic Social teaching liberal is it conservative is it more like the Democrats more like the Republicans I would defy anybody to read the issues raised in this statement the things that that the pope feels violate human dignity and tell me oh yeah this is clearly a Democratic Party statement or clearly a Republican party statement clearly liberal clearly conservative look what's mentioned explicitly great concern about the plight of migrants great concern about the curse of War great concern about the
the situation of those living in poverty great concern about violence against women okay those are at least in the standard reading kind of left-wing uh preoccupations and at the same time violations of human dignity include abortion they include euthanasia and indeed gender ideology sex change Etc all things that preoccupy the right more to it there are things for example human trafficking that come up that I think well pretty much everybody is against so is this left is it Center is it right none of it none of it Catholic Social teaching beautifully transcends this split and
there's a lot of reasons for that and where this split came from but cic social teaching it's its Glory I think it's it's its pride and joy that it transcends these easy political U divides here's the third thing that really struck me and I will touch here on on the gender issues and it's a theme I've talked about everybody a lot what I call the culture of self-invention so in this letter um it's Cardinal Fernandez who's responsible for it the pope has approved it they they talk about the divorce between freedom and Truth this is
an old John Paul II theme too isn't it there's such a valorization of freedom in much of the West it's become Freedom runam monck it's Freedom so divorced from truth that freedom now has the right to determine truth to determine the nature of reality you know go back to Casey versus Planned Parenthood 1992 in our country when the Supreme Court said it belongs to the very nature of Liberty to determine the meaning of one's life and the meaning of existence Ian one of the most absurd things ever said in in the jurist Prudence of our
of any country that my freedom determines the nature of reality but that's exactly what we have today in our culture and you see it especially in regard to gender Theory I decide my gender well what about your your body which seems to be kind of a given that we're created male and female oh who cares the body can be changed because Freedom my freedom is so absolute well this is exactly what the church is speaking out against and thank God for it can I read you just a quote uh directly from the letter I thought
was was very telling listen regarding gender Theory the church recalls that human life both physical and spiritual is a gift from God this gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed bed at the service of the good Desiring a personal self-determination apart from this fundamental truth amounts to a concession to the age old temptation to make oneself God dead right it seems to me he's going right back you know to the Book of Genesis that when we we grasp at the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil that means I determine for myself
what's right and wrong what's good and bad no no Freedom surrenders to the good it surrenders to the truth and thereby finds itself so can I just say you know as I conclude here thanks to Cardinal Fernandez and to Pope Francis because I think in a culture that's sounding increasingly um insane this letter is is an expression of uh of [Music] [Applause] sanity
