The Declaration “Dignitas Infinita” On Human Dignity
One of the greatest voices for the upholding of the dignity of human life was St. John Paul II and it is only fitting that the Declaration on Human Dignity, Dignitas Infinita (DI), was issued from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on April 2, 2024, the nineteenth anniversary of this great saint’s death. This is very much a “package” document that is meant to cover a very wide number of life and sexual issues.
It has been rather typical of the documents issued in this papacy in that it seeks to finds a common thread for both believers and non-believers alike as regarding the elusive but essential nature of human dignity and the respect due it and rights surrounding it.
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Victory Is Sure for All Who Love
In 1990, I had the privilege of attending the second Worldwide Encounter for Priests in Rome. One of my fellow participants was an Australian priest who had spent most of his active ministry in the Highlands of Peru. One night on a dark bus coming back from the sessions to our hotel, he began to tell the story of why he was on sabbatical. In the previous year, all through Lent, he had prepared an astonishing number of people to receive the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion as they were received into the Church along with blessing a number of marriages. With a gathering of villages, they had celebrated all of Holy Week and they had a triumphant Easter which culminated with an Easter Vigil that finished at dawn. After that, the fiesta began. He was exhausted and went off to a local village to sleep. After about 12 hours, his villagers came to fetch him back to the main village which had just been attacked by the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.
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The Global Gift
As is obvious to everyone reading this newsletter, the priestly vocation crisis in Canada has been dire for the last two generations. Priestly vocations have plummeted, and every diocese and religious order has seen the hollowing out of our ranks. Steeply raising the retirement age of our active priests and merging parishes are only some of the drastic moves taken to keep the pastoral care of Canadian Catholics going.
Luckily, we have benefitted enormously from the influx of priests from many other countries. The source countries have changed but the Canadian Catholic Church has seen the face of the priesthood literally and irrevocably change in the last 50 years.
As we priests are pro-life leaders this means that a change in pro-life thinking must also take place.
Recently, I gave presentations to Oblate priests many of whom came from Poland and serve in our far north. One mentioned that he was a “foreign“ priest. “Father,” I replied, ”You have been here for 40 years. That is longer than most Canadians have been alive. You’re Canadian now, surely!” He answered, “No, I am still seen as foreign and you have to walk carefully in a different culture.”
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