Dignity and Distance, by Joseph R. Wood

Firebrand in Baltimore, by Aidan O’Connor 
November 19, 2021
WATCH! Death with Dignity, by Real Life Catholic
November 19, 2021

*Image: The Adoration of the Holy Trinity by Albrecht Dürer, 1511 [Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna]. Commissioned by the Nuremberg metal trader Matthäus Landauer, Adoration is the center panel of what is now called the Landauer Altarpiece.

By Joseph R. Wood, The Catholic Thing, Nov. 19, 2021

Dr. Joseph Wood teaches at the Institute of World Politics in Washington D.C. and is a Fellow at Cana Academy.

Note: One reason life in the womb and at its natural end receives so little respect in our culture is because we have false notions of human dignity. As Professor Wood recounts today, there are serious efforts to remedy that lack – even at places like Notre Dame. And, we might add, here at The Catholic Thing. We’re about halfway through our year-end campaign and we need more of you to step up to help in this spiritual, as well as social struggle. We only ask twice a year. Please, don’t wait. Do your part for TCT right away. – Robert Royal

Joseph R. WoodThe de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at Notre Dame held its Fall conference last week on the theme, “I Have Called You by Name: Human Dignity in a Secular World.” This year’s conference sought to clarify a notion – human dignity – that is both necessary and abused in contemporary discourse, with ever-expanding demands for human rights often couched as flowing from dignity.

In the traditional Christian understanding, the dignity of the human person derives from our creation in the image of God. Our rationality and freedom give us and creation itself a special status that God in Genesis calls “very good.”

Dignity means that the rest of Creation serves us, and we have a duty to exercise dominion over Creation. We have a right to be served, and the duty to serve. …

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