The subject matter encompasses a wide range of distressing circumstances, including war, poverty, migration, sexual abuse, violence against women, abortion, surrogacy, euthanasia, assisted suicide, the discarding of the disabled, gender theory, sex change, and digital violence. "Everything that offends human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportations, slavery, prostitution, the trade in women and young people, or the ignominious working conditions, with which workers are treated as mere instruments of profit, and not as free and responsible persons", as well as the issue of the death penalty, which "violates the inalienable dignity of every human person beyond all circumstances". The aforementioned transgressions against human dignity are emphasized in the "Infinite Dignitas Regarding Human Dignity" section of the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. According to the declaration, the Church "takes a stand against the practice of surrogate motherhood, which reduces the child, immensely worthy, to a mere object". In this aspect, Pope Francis' remarks are very clear: "the way of peace requires respect for life, for every human life, beginning with that of the unborn child in the mother's womb, which cannot be suppressed or become an object of merchandise. In this light, I find the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood unacceptable, since it significantly degrades the dignity of women and children. It is based on taking advantage of the mother's material necessity. A child is always a gift, not the subject of a contract. I hope that the international community will resolve to universally prohibiting this practice".
|