Every secular and religious commentator seems particularly interested in what the Catholic Church says in its new document Dignitas infinita ("infinite dignity") regarding gender theory and the morality of sex change operations. And it does indeed say interesting things about both, but it is worth highlighting three more foundational themes of the statement that should not be overlooked.
First, the title itself is of extreme importance. Throughout this document, the Church is affirming the principal pillar of its social teaching, namely, that every human being is a subject of infinite dignity. And this worth is grounded, not in moral achievement or intellectual capacity, but in the simple fact that each person is a creature of God—moreover, a creature redeemed by Christ and destined for eternal life.
In a winsomely novel way, the document refers to the "ontological" dignity of the individual, signaling that human dignity is intrinsic, irreducibly basic, and tied to the very being of the one who possesses it. Now you might be tempted to say, "well, doesn't everyone, religious or not, hold to this?" The answer to that question is clearly no. The dignity of every person was by no means taken for granted in the context of ancient civilizations—quite the contrary. And human dignity has been explicitly denied in political regimes across time and across cultures, very much to the present day. What is fascinating is why we in the West do tend to take it for granted. I stand with the British historian Tom Holland in declaring that this conviction is not a general default position but rather something bequeathed to us by the Biblical and Christian tradition.
Some have tried to justify the principle of human dignity on non-religious grounds, arguing that a person has dignity because of his or her mental capacity or creativity or sense of responsibility. But notice that such an explanation would permit the elimination of individuals who are deemed not to be sufficient in intelligence, creativity, or social utility. To see where this logic takes us, take a good look at the death camps of the 20th century, or for that matter, at the antiseptic and seemingly benign clinics where the elderly and infirm are put to death every day in Europe, the U.S., and Canada. It strikes me as entirely appropriate that it is none other than the Pope, the most prominent representative of Biblical religion in the world, who is taking this stand for human dignity today.
A second major theme of Dignitas infinita is the wonderfully confounding nature of Catholic social teaching. The doctrine of the Church in regard to social, moral, and political matters simply does not correspond to the customary bifurcation into Left and Right, liberal and conservative.
When the document explores various threats to human dignity, it draws attention to a number of issues that are, generally speaking, of particular interest to the Left. So, for example, the document speaks of the plight of migrants, the scourge of war, increasing poverty, and violence against women. And it also insists upon matters that the Right takes seriously: the tragedies of abortion, euthanasia, and gender ideology. Finally, it highlights problems that both sides consider important: human trafficking, sexual abuse of children, care for those with disabilities. The point is this: I would challenge anyone in the West to study the range of threats to human dignity listed in Dignitas infinita and tell me exactly which political camp is being favored. That's the beauty of Catholic Social Teaching—and to be honest, it is also the source of a good deal of pastoral frustration. But that's a column for another day.
The third and final theme to explore is one that I have written about a good deal in the past: the culture of self-invention. Our contemporary liberal society is so preoccupied with freedom of choice that it gives the self-determining will authority over reality itself. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the U.S. Supreme Court blithely declared that it belongs to the nature of liberty for each individual to determine the meaning of the universe and of existence itself. That high legal judgment is now the default position of every teenager in America: freedom orders being. But in the classical and Biblical imagination, freedom is always correlated to objective truth and value; it is the disciplining of desire so as to make the achievement of the good first possible and then effortless.
When the Vatican's document speaks out against gender ideology and "gender-affirming care," it is challenging the peculiar and self-destructive modern conception of freedom. Listen to this uncompromising language: "Regarding gender theory...the Church recalls that human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God. This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. Desiring a personal self-determination...apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God."
I am very grateful to Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, who is the principal author of this text, and to Pope Francis, who gave it his formal approval. At a time when, frankly, many in the West seem to be going mad, this text is refreshing in its sanity.
Bishop Robert Barron is bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester (Minnesota) and an acclaimed author, speaker, and theologian. He is also the founder of Word on Fire. Follow him on Twitter: @BishopBarron
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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