The Personal Dignity of All

SCJ

Priests of the Sacred Heart
Vocation Office in the United States

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Dignity of All

The Personal Dignity of All People

As Catholic social doctrine emerged and developed in the late 19th century, the cornerstone of this teaching was the dignity of the human person. Father Dehon affirms that human life is sacred due to a quality that is essential or internal to being human. The sacredness of human life rest on something intrinsically human which every human being shares and is endowed with.

"Every person has inalienable dignity, duties, and rights. Whatever social class one belong to, every person is endowed not only with a living body but with an intelligent free and immortal soul which God created. Having come from God, this soul should serve God and return to God. Whether this soul lives in the body of a worker at the bottom of a dark coal mine, or in the body of a well-fed financier living in the lap of luxury, it doesn't matter: in reality both of them have the same value. They have equal personal dignity, equal moral responsibility, the same eternal destiny, and both of them have been given earthly existence so that through truth, morality and religion they may strive for eternal life."

Father Leo John Dehon,
Founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart

This section on Father's Dehon ideas about the dignity of the human person is taken from Father Paul J. McGuire, SCJ scholarly work on areas of Father Dehon and social justice. If you would like to know more about Father Dehon's idea on the social justice, please contact:

Dehon Study Center
10731 W. Rawson Ave.
Franklin, WI 53132
or contact him by
email: mcguirescj@aol.com

Vocation Office
P.O. Box 206
Hales Corners, WI 53130
1-800-609-5559

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