Dignitas Infinita. A Theological Commentary

Antonio Autiero is Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology at University of Münster (Germany).

The title of the Declaration of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, published on 8 April 2024, merits particular attention, due less to its originality (since it takes up an expression recurrent in earlier texts by the papal magisterium) than to the evocative space—both interesting and provocative—created by the image of the infinite in the adjective chosen to describe the dignity of which the document speaks.

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Why Should Human Dignity Be Defined as Infinite? Brief Reflections on Dignitas Infinita

Benedetta Vimercati is an associate professor of constitutional law at the University of Milan.

Referring to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Jacques Maritain stated,

Here we are no longer dealing with the mere enumeration of Human Rights, but with the principle of dynamic unification whereby they are brought into play, with the tone scale, with the specific key in which different kinds of music are played on the same keyboard, music which in the event is in tune with, or harmful to, human dignity.

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The Pope and the War

This series explores how Pope Francis as the head of the Catholic Church and the Vatican deals with the Russia-Ukraine war.

Many observers call the Pope’s approach ambiguous.

On the one hand, the Catholic Church has provided humanitarian support to Ukrainians affected by the war from its very beginning in 2014. For example, from 2016 to 2018 the Catholic Church raised almost €16 million through the “Pope for Ukraine” initiative and funded several programs for internally displaced people and those living in the combat zone. Such programs provided mobile health clinics, food vouchers, and psychological help for adults and minors; and repaired and insulated houses damaged by the war. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Pope Francis has made several public speeches and gestures in support of Ukrainian victims of the war and has tried to advance humanitarian efforts—including attempts to facilitate the return to Ukraine of Ukrainian children deported by Russia—and to highlight the moral catastrophe of the Bucha massacre and similar crimes.

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