The new document seeks to elevate a number of social themes emphasized by Pope Francis during his decade-long papacy — such as poverty, migration and human trafficking — as being equally a part of the potential threats to human dignity as bioethical concerns, such as abortion and euthanasia.   

From Vatican News: 

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s new document ‘Dignitas infinita’ took five years to complete, and builds on the papal magisterium of the last decade: from war to poverty, from violence against migrants to violence against women, from abortion to surrogate motherhood to euthanasia, from gender theory to digital violence.

Three chapters offer the foundations for the fourth, which is dedicated to “some grave violations of human dignity”.

That’s the structure of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s new Declaration “Dignitas infinita”, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirms “the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology ” (Intro.)

The main novelty of the document, which is the fruit of five years’ work, is the inclusion of a number of key themes from the recent papal magisterium that accompany the bioethical ones. In the ‘non-exhaustive’ list that is offered, abortion, euthanasia and surrogate motherhood are listed as violations of human dignity alongside war, poverty and human trafficking.

The new text thus contributes to overcoming the dichotomy that exists between those who focus exclusively on beginning-and-end-of-life issues, while forgetting so many other attacks against human dignity and, conversely, those who focus only on defending the poor and migrants while forgetting that life must be defended from conception to its natural conclusion.

NCR offers some context: 

While the highly anticipated treatise, “Dignitas infinita: on Human Dignity,” which has been the source of much speculation for months, offers a broadside against the creation of new rights motivated by sex and gender, it is largely a reiteration of long-held Catholic teaching on a number of social and moral concerns.

The new document, however, seeks to elevate a number of social themes emphasized by Pope Francis during his decade-long papacy — such as poverty, migration and human trafficking — as being equally a part of the full panoply of potential threats to human dignity as bioethical concerns, such as abortion and euthanasia.

“The Church’s Magisterium progressively developed an ever-greater understanding of the meaning of human dignity, along with its demands and consequences, until it arrived at the recognition that the dignity of every human being prevails beyond all circumstances,” the document states.

Published by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and timed, in part, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the United Nations’ landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 2023, the document offers a sweeping overview of scriptural, theological, philosophical and historical developments in understandings of human dignity.

In considering threats to human dignity in the modern era, the document states, Francis “never ceases to point out the concrete violations of human dignity in our time, calling us each to awaken to our responsibility and the need to engage in a concrete commitment in this regard.”

While the document notes that that Second Vatican Council taught that “all offenses against life” are “contrary to human dignity,” the April 8 document dedicates the most significant section of its nearly 20-page text to “grave violations” to human dignity that are particularly relevant in the modern world.

Among the newly identified threats to human dignity are poverty; war; the travail of migrants; human trafficking; sexual abuse; violence against women; abortion; child surrogacy; euthanasia and assisted suicide; the marginalization of people with disabilities; gender theory; sex change; and digital violence.

Gender theory, according to the document, is a subject of considerable debate among scientific experts, and risks denying “the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference.”