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Vatican News reported that US Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the Archbishop of Washington, D.C., praised the new declaration Diginitas infinita on human dignity.
Dignitas infinita (DI), is “probably the most comprehensive summary” of Church teaching on the topic “that could be issued at this time,” says Cardinal Wilton Gregory.
The Archbishop was in Rome for The Papal Foundation Board Meeting and the Rector’s Dinner at the Pontifical North American College, where he will receive the “Rector’s Award.”
Cardinal Gregory acknowledged that the document touched on a number of “hot-button” issues and has sparked controversy on various sides. “But if you take the document as a whole,” he says, “it’s not a document about one specific issue beyond the fact that it treats human individuals, human people, as dignified in a way that is irreplaceable, that we never lose the dignity that God entrusts to us as He creates us.”
He notes that the Declaration is “humble in its context, but also very, very deeply rooted in Catholic moral and anthropological teachings.
At the same time, Cardinal Gregory says he thinks DI will be a “challenge” for people. “Everyone – maybe that’s an overstatement – people will probably find something that they agree wholeheartedly with, and something that they will have to think about.”
“And to be perfectly honest,” he adds, “I think that’s the sign of a successful document. It affirms that which you understand, accept, hold and cling to, but it also stretches you to consider other dimensions of our ecclesial life, of our social life, that may pose a challenge.”
Giving the example of the death penalty, Cardinal Gregory notes that the Church as “continually strengthened its opposition to capital punishment,” moving towards the position that it is never really justified. “And for a number of people, that’s going to be an issue,” the Cardinal says, while emphasizing that DI insists that even people who have committed heinous crimes “have not lost the dignity that they had from the day of their conception.”
Cardinal Gregory spoke of his own Archdiocese of Washington, highlighting the treatment of LGBTQ+ people and individuals concerned about their gender identity.
“The document has to both recognize their human dignity, but also call them to accept and realize the fact that God has given them the dignity of an identity in their creation,” he says.
The Cardinal also calls attention to the “dignity of our migrant community.” Sometimes, he says, migrants “are being denigrated” by those who have “very strong feelings” about immigration, while at the same time, questions are raised about how to “admit and respect people who come to our borders looking for the same life advantages” that the ancestors of current residents sought when they came to America in the past.
“So those issues are going to be of critical importance,” Cardinal Gregory says.
Dignitas infinita, he concludes, is “a very balanced document, and a very balanced way to look at the whole range of issues that call to mind [the question], ‘How can we better respect human dignity at every moment of its existence?'”
Image Screenshot from a Vatican Media file photo of Pope Francis with Archbishop Gregory from several years ago
Text Edited from Vatican News
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