The Church's View on Human Dignity and Freedom

First, the definition of a human person as the church sees it is that they see men and women as the living image of God himself, the image of his plan, they have received a part of God's dignity. The church invites all people to recognize in everyone a brother or sister 'for whom Christ died'. 'Human society is therefore the object of the social teaching of church since this is neither outside or nor over and above socially united men, but exists exclusively in them and for them.' The human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communication with other persons. He is called by grace to offer his creator a response of faith and love.

Human Faculties

The Catholic social doctrine of the church is based on the concept of society, which has been created according to a specific cultural model. The anthropological issue is an essential element. 'Man is a rational being and this is why he is similar to God. He was created free and has power and possession of his own acts.'

• Notion of Human Freedom: is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate actions on their own responsibility. By free will one shapes his own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness. It attains its perfection when is directed towards God. Without freedom, we cannot speak about morality or moral responsibility. It is the capacity to choose between two or more things. God gave us the right to become who he created us to be and to share an eternal union with him, which happens when we choose ways that are in harmony with his plan. Christian morality and God's law are given to us for the pursuit of happiness. God gave us the intelligence and the capacity to act freely to pursuit this happiness. We are free to say 'yes' to God. But, many people today understand human freedom as the ability to make a choice, with no objective norm or good as the goal. Freedom has limits, men is called to accept the moral law given by God. In fact, human freedom finds its authentic and complete fulfilment precisely in the acceptance of that law. By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself and rebels against divine truth.
• Natural Freedom: Exclusive patrimony of those creatures gifted with intelligence or reason. It is nothing else than the faculty of choosing between those means which are appropriate to accomplish a certain end. Each of us are responsible for our acts and we are free to decide if we want to return to God.
• Moral Freedom: Interpretation that believes that mankind is absolutely free, without limitations, to decide by himself what is objectively good or bad. Freedom, as a faculty, which perfects man, should be applied exclusively to the truth and goodness. Therefore, the nature of human freedom includes the necessity to obey a higher and eternal reason, which is the authority of God.

Concept of Human Dignity

The person is sacred, made in the image of God. We all have a God’s life imprinted on our nature. Each person has a human condition and the ability to practise virtues in regard to God like prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, so that we’ll become the person God wants. But we are free to decide if we want to follow him or not. There is tension between virtue and vice, good and evil. A just society can become a reality only when it is based on the respect of the dignity of the human person. The person represents the ultimate end of society. It is necessary that public authorities keep careful watch so that restrictions placed on freedom placed on personal activity will never become harmful to personal dignity, but guaranteeing the effective practicability of human rights. All this, once more, is based on the vision of man as a person, that is to say, as an active and responsible subject of his own growth process, together with the community to which he belongs.