In the work I do with people who have experienced harm and abuse in the Church, a question that often comes up is: Why are you still Catholic?
Every person responds to that question in their own way. Maybe the most common response I hear is that it’s the sacraments, the Eucharist, that’s the thing that people feel keeps them connected to Catholicism.
But my answer to that question isn’t the Eucharist or the liturgy. Maybe the biggest thing keeping me Catholic is the Church’s teaching on the dignity of every human person. Not the teaching itself necessarily, but the worldview, the moral vision, that comes out of it.
I wanted to share my love of this teaching—and its implications—with you. So over the next several weeks, I’m going to release a short series of videos unpacking the prophetic and wildly unrealistic proclamation that every single human being has infinite dignity.
“Certainly, all this calls for an alternative way of thinking. Without an attempt to enter into that way of thinking, what I am saying here will sound wildly unrealistic. On the other hand, if we accept the great principle that there are rights born of our inalienable human dignity, we can rise to the challenge of envisaging a new humanity. We can aspire to a world that provides land, housing and work for all. This is the true path of peace” (Fratelli Tutti 127).
