This weekend, we continue our “journey” through Respect Life Month. Once more tapping resources compiled by The Office for Human Life of the Diocese of Cleveland, we examine the next facet of human dignity: What is Moral Dignity and Why Does it Matter? Dignity is not only Something We Possess. It is also Something We Are Called to Live.
The Church teaches that every person possesses an unchanging dignity simply because he or she is human. This is called ontological dignity. Yet the Church also recognizes another aspect of dignity called moral dignity, which concerns how we use our freedom. God created us with intellect, conscience, and free will. Because we are free, we can choose to love, serve, and pursue what is good. We can also choose selfishness, injustice, and sin. Moral dignity refers to the way our choices either reflect or contradict the truth about who we are as sons and daughters of God. While our deepest dignity can never be lost, the way we live can either reveal that dignity or obscure it.
As Pope Francis set out in the 2024 declaration Dignitas Infinita:
When we speak of moral dignity, we refer to how people exercise their freedom. While people are endowed with conscience, they can always act against it. However, were they to do so, they would behave in a way that is 'not dignified' with respect to their nature as creatures who are loved by God and called to love others.
Modern culture often presents freedom as the ability to do whatever we want. Yet freedom is not simply self-expression. Rather, it is ordered toward truth and love. Authentic freedom does not mean freedom from God. It means freedom for holiness, virtue, and self-giving love.
A specific issue for prayer and study during this second week is Human Trafficking. What is Human Trafficking? The use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel labor and/or commercial sex. When a minor is involved in commercial sex, proof of force, fraud, or coercion is not required. Here are just a few figures. In the State of Ohio, 2,586 potential or confirmed survivors have been identified by participating agencies between 2021 and the present. Within the United States, 42,887 likely victims reported to the National Hotline between 2020 – 2022. At the global level, 230,000 trafficked persons assisted in the Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC partner dataset) from 2002 to 2024.
Please refer to page 2 of this issue of the parish bulletin, for a set of questions for reflection, as individuals and within our households this week. Here is another invocation to our Blessed Mother, for incorporation in daily prayer this week:
Mary, Full of Grace, You had a choice in responding to God’s call; Help us always to say “Yes” to the will of God in our lives, and strive always to do whatever he tells us.
Let His Peace be with you,
Fr. Stephen
