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Every social decision and institution must be
judged in light of whether it protects or undermines the life and
dignity of the human person.
- Genesis
1:26-27 (created in the image of God)
- Deuteronomy
30:19 (choose life)
- Psalm 8:5-7
(humans made little less than a god)
- John 12:32
(Christ will draw all to himself)
- 1 Corinthians
15:22 (Christ died for all)
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“All offenses against
life itself, such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and
willful suicide; all violations of the integrity of the human person .
. . all offenses against human dignity, such as subhuman living
conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery,
prostitution, the selling of women and children, degrading working
conditions where men are treated as mere tools for profit rather than
free and responsible persons: all these and the like are criminal:
they poison civilization . . . and militate against the honor of the
creator.”
-
Second Vatican
Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium
et Spes), no. 27
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“Every individual, precisely by reason of the
mystery of the Word of God who was made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14), is
entrusted to the maternal care of the Church. Therefore every threat
to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church’s
very heart; it cannot but affect her at the core of her faith in the
Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God, and engage her in her
mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Life in all the world and
to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15).”
-
Pope John Paul II, The Gospel
of Life (Evangelium Vitae), no. 3
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“Our belief in the sanctity of human life and the
inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all the
principles of our social teaching.” Every person is created in the
image of God. Every person is precious. All social laws, practices,
and institutions must protect, not undermine, human life and human
dignity – from conception through natural death.
~
In a world warped by materialism and declining
respect for human life, the Catholic Church proclaims that human life
is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation
of a moral vision for society. Our belief in the sanctity of human
life and the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of
all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human life
is under direct attack from abortion and assisted suicide. The value
of human life is being threatened by increasing use of the death
penalty. The dignity of life is undermined when the creation of human
life is reduced to the manufacture of a product, as in human cloning
or proposals for generic engineering to create “perfect” human
beings. We believe that every person is precious, that people are
more important than things, and that the measure of every institution
is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human
person.
~
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