Each of God's Children Deserves a Life of Dignity

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One of the essential truths of Catholic teaching is its consistent ethic of life. In its simplest terms, Catholicism teaches that all people have equal worth; that all life is sacred and deserves protection; and that every person – regardless of faith, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disability, or other characteristic – deserves a life of dignity.

Humans being human, this simple statement of the value of all is neglected, misconstrued or downright ignored far too often.  

In our daily lives, each of us has our own biases, prejudices and blind spots that keep us from recognizing that our theology of human dignity applies to each and every human being we encounter.  Problems arise when we forget that every unborn child will potentially become a gay, lesbian, heterosexual, transgender, Muslim, Mormon, black, brown, or white human being who maintains the same worth we sought to protect in the womb. God determines our value as part of his creation by nothing more or less than our status as a human being from the moment of conception until the moment of our natural death. We may have to spend some time atoning for our mistakes, but God’s love does not waver; thus, we maintain our significance in our Creator’s eyes.

With this consistent teaching about the dignity and sanctity of life, Catholics should be able to recognize that a child in the womb of a poor Muslim mother living in Ethiopia has as much God-given right to ample food, clean water, education and care as does the child in the womb of the wealthy Christian mom living in the United States. We should understand that those babies in the womb, whether born with attraction to the opposite sex or the same sex, are equally loved by God and equally deserve to lead lives of dignity. We should agree that when those babies grow to make huge mistakes, including felonies, the sanctity of life remains and the state should not take it away prematurely though execution.

In the abstract, it seems straightforward to love as Jesus loves, to measure as we want to be measured. We agree a baby in the womb needs to be protected. But do we also agree that such protection means not only assisting the pregnant woman who needs medical care, healthy food, and a safe home to maintain the pregnancy, but helping her after the baby is born to access healthy food, health care and the many things needed to raise a child?  As pro-life proponents, we do not rest our support for an unborn child on the race, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or financial status of the child. Why would we do so after the child is born?

Catholics who support the dignity and sanctity of life, whether of those who are already born or in the womb, should strive not to choose one group of individuals to protect over another. Catholics are a church of “both, and” not “either, or.” We do not prioritize “our” people; we are all “our” people, because we profess that we are all sons and daughters of God.  

Each of us can only do so much to help our brothers and sisters in Christ. But as residents within a prosperous country, we have the blessing of being able to choose from many options for serving others. We can assist the global poor through contributions to Catholic Relief Services, we can serve the local poor through contributions and volunteer work with Catholic Community Services. We can advocate locally and nationally for policies that protect life in our state, nation and abroad. We can even help through our daily choices, such as protecting the dignity of work locally and globally by buying products that meet ethical trade standards.  

In short, we Catholics need not choose which lives to protect or which of our brothers and sisters to assist in living a life of dignity, we just need to choose among the many options available to us for doing so.  

Jean Hill is the director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City Peace & Justice Commission.