Our first parents, endowed with every good gift and living in friendship with the benevolent Creator, yielded to the temptation to assert an autonomy that was never their own, exalting themselves over God.
Thus, as illustrated in the masterwork of St. Augustine, was the “city of men” set in conflict with the “City of God.” Yet in the fullness of time, God sent His only begotten Son to establish that Kingdom wherein He might offer to humankind infinitely more than it had lost.
Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us. (Ecclesiastes 1:10)
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly gave witness to this Scriptural truth as it proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR), an international agreement that presumes to set forth certain rights deriving not from God, but directly from the dignity of the human person.
While it is widely acknowledged that Pope Pius XII had misgivings about the declaration (as evidenced by the silence with which he greeted its enactment), many contemporary Catholic commentators applaud the agreement, claiming that the Holy Father himself set the stage for its creation, some even going so far as to say that the pope explicitly called for it. [i]
There exists in the magisterium of Pope Pius XII, however, no indication that he wished to entrust to the UN, or to any other secular institution, the task of drafting such a declaration.
Upon examination, one discovers that the Holy Father’s teaching concerning the internal ordering of nations (i.e., social life) and the matter of international relations (topics that he insisted are interrelated) clearly spells out the very reasons why the UDHR, in its failure to account for the Sovereignty of the Lord and man’s obligation to uphold His Law, is so woefully deficient as to be unacceptable, in spite of any attractive elements it may otherwise appear to contain.
A succinct summary of the centerpiece of Pius’ magisterium on the subject can be found in the Holy Father’s Christmas Address of 1942:
“The origin and the primary scope of social life is the conservation, development and perfection of the human person, helping him to realize accurately the demands and values of religion and culture set by the Creator for every man and for all mankind, both as a whole and in its natural ramifications.
A social teaching or a social reconstruction program which denies or prescinds from this internal essential relation to God of everything that regards men, is on a false course; and while it builds up with one hand, it prepares with the other the materials which sooner or later will undermine and destroy the whole fabric.”
For Pope Pius XII, just as his venerable predecessors, the germane point isn’t particularly complex:
Programs aimed at the ordering of society, and likewise those pertaining to the international order, can beneficially serve mankind only if they “conform to the demands of God’s Law.” (ibid.) In other words, apart from due subjugation to the Social Reign of Jesus Christ, He who is Sovereign of the City of God, all such human endeavors are destined to end not in order, but in disorder.
With this most basic of Catholic doctrines in mind, let us now examine the deficiencies so readily apparent in the Preamble to the UDHR, wherein the foundational principles upon which its articles rest are set forth:
- “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…”
The foundation of freedom, justice and peace is not, as this statement surely implies, a human construct that naturally results from man duly acknowledging man; rather are they founded in the Creator and made known to man in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is both King and Prince of Peace.
Indeed, apart from Christ, man has not the reference point necessary in order to properly recognize human dignity in its fullness.
In the words of Gaudium et Spes (a document not exactly known as a tour de force of Christocentric thought in its own right), “Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself.” [ii]
[NOTE: The above referenced quote from GS 22 is at best ambiguous. Our Blessed Lord told us that He reveals the Father to man; not, properly speaking “man to himself.” Jesus Christ is the fullness of Divine Revelation, not human revelation. Even so, a generous interpretation of the text indicates that man and his dignity rests in Christ and unity with Him and not in man himself.]
When man becomes his own reference point, by contrast, assaults against human dignity find fertile ground in which to propagate; e.g., abortion can effectively be peddled as “freedom of choice,” same-sex “marriage” can plausibly be disguised as a symbol for justice, and compromise with evil can easily be construed as a service to the cause of peace.
The Preamble goes on to suggest that adherence to the UDHR will pave the way for a Utopian ideal.
- “…the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want [that] has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.”
Needless to say, the “highest aspiration” of humankind is not a laundry list of civil rights; rather, it is communion with God, the same that constitutes the “root reason” for human dignity. [iii]
The source of the UN’s unbridled hope for the future, one discovers, is none other than humanity itself.
- “Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights…”
When one’s faith is in “fundamental human rights” (i.e., man) and not in the Lord, to whom should one look as the highest authority?
- “Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms…”
The faithful Catholic can hardly fail to recognize as pure folly any human pursuit that promises to benefit mankind apart from cooperation with the Father’s plan of salvation revealed in Christ Jesus and entrusted to His Church. In the UDHR, however, the United Nations presumes to anoint itself as the highest authority with which one must cooperate.
- “Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge…”
What might serve as the guiding light for arriving at this proposed common understanding?
The answer is plain: It is man himself.
As one might expect, many of the articles that follow in the body of the Declaration are equally as flawed. In the interest of space, Article 21 § 3 may be considered representative:
- “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government…”
Contrast this Edenesque proclamation of human autonomy with the words of Pope Leo XIII:
“But, as no society can hold together unless some one be over all, directing all to strive earnestly for the common good, every body politic must have a ruling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, has its source in nature, and has, consequently, God for its Author.” [iv]
At this point, it should be plainly evident to the reader why Pope Pius XII could not endorse the proposals set forth in the UDHR, as ultimately it amounts to little more than the “city of man” flexing its collective muscles in the face of Christ the King.
Why then do so many of those contemporary Catholic commentators, who behave as if the UDHR is one of humanity’s crowning achievements, evidently place such high priority on the notion that its roots can be discerned in the magisterium of Pius XII?
It is for the very same reason that John Courtney Murray so often misappropriated the magisterium of this same Holy Father (and others) in his quest to radically alter the Church’s doctrine on religious freedom; namely, it is to lend credence to claims of continuity.
You see, apart from the illusion that Pope Pius XII at least implicitly desired an international agreement that set forth certain rights that derive directly from the human person, as if man himself is their source, the UDHR will most certainly be recognized for what it truly is; a radical departure from that which is laudable relative to sure Christian doctrine.
Keeping in mind all that we’ve discussed thus far, consider the following commentary (the sources of which will be addressed momentarily) suggesting that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is in no way incompatible with the City of God.
- “An act of the highest importance performed by the United Nations Organization was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved in the General Assembly of December 10, 1948. In the preamble of that Declaration, the recognition and respect of those rights and respective liberties is proclaimed as a goal to be achieved by all peoples and all countries … For in it, in most solemn form, the dignity of a human person is acknowledged to all human beings…” [v]
- “When this eminent international assembly prepares to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man, We want to seize the occasion once more to express our great confidence in, and at the same time our firm accord with, the consistent commitment of the United Nations in the promotion – ever more precise, more official, and more efficacious – of the respect of the fundamental rights of man. As we have affirmed elsewhere, the Declaration on the Rights of Man remains in our eyes one of the most beautiful titles of glory.” [vi]
- “I am particularly pleased to join in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights being held by the United Nations Organization, the guardian of one of the most precious and important documents in the history of law.” [vii]
The comments offered above are attributable to none other than Popes John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II respectively.
How is it possible for one to consider the stunning progression just outlined – from the sober words of Pope Pius XII reminding the world of the “essential relation to God of everything that regards men,” to the above quoted, near breathless, praise for the naked humanism articulated in the UDHR – as anything other than a rupture of the most dangerous kind?
Missing, it seems, from the worldview of the Successors of Pope Pius XII, is an abiding awareness of, and willingness to plainly preach, the Sovereign Rights of Christ the King.
As Pope John XXIII spoke in 1963, the gap between his own inclination to form an accord with the “city of man” and the Christocentrism of his predecessors had yet to be fully bridged as it appears today, even if simply in practice, and then only by claims unsustainable.
In fact, even as he lauded the UDHR, the Holy Father acknowledged as much, albeit obliquely, saying, “We are, of course, aware that some of the points in the declaration did not meet with unqualified approval in some quarters; and there was justification for this.” [viii]
On October 4, 1965, his successor, Pope Paul VI, became the first ever Roman Pontiff to appear before the United Nations General Assembly, at which time he offered the sort of obeisance that even common men of Christian faith are constrained in conscience to reserve for the Lord and His Church alone:
“The peoples of the earth turn to the United Nations as the last hope of concord and peace.”
Some two months later, the Second Vatican Council would place its own seal upon the treaty with the city of man in the form of Dignitatis Humanae, the Declaration on Religious Freedom, thereby sending a message that the world would receive as a signal that the King of kings had willingly relinquished His throne in favor of a common seat at the table of international diplomacy.
It is in this post-conciliar environment that churchmen developed the regrettable habit of incessantly invoking the “rights of the human person” while offering little to no exhortation concerning the duties of men toward God in light of the Sovereign rights that are ever His own.
And thus it remains to this very day.
Even so, a glimmer of light momentarily pierced the fog on April 18, 2008 with the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in New York where he addressed the UN General Assembly:
“This document [UDHR] was the outcome of a convergence of different religious and cultural traditions, all of them motivated by the common desire to place the human person at the heart of institutions, laws and the workings of society, and to consider the human person essential for the world of culture, religion and science. Human rights are increasingly being presented as the common language and the ethical substratum of international relations. At the same time, the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights all serve as guarantees safeguarding human dignity.” [ix]
Though his hosts would have been pleased had the Holy Father stopped right there, His Holiness forged ahead, and in his own gentle way sowed what appear to be the seeds of a much needed corrective; not just in the way that Roman Pontiffs address the UN, but in the way in which the Church engages the world. He continued:
“It is evident, though, that the rights recognized and expounded in the Declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God’s creative design for the world and for history. They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from this context would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political, social and even religious outlooks. This great variety of viewpoints must not be allowed to obscure the fact that not only rights are universal, but so too is the human person, the subject of those rights.” [x]
This is, of course, but one relatively modest inference that has long since been overwhelmed by the cacophony of humanist voices reverberating both within the walls of the Church and without, but it is perhaps a seminal step in the right direction just the same.
It will fall to the successor of Pope Benedict XVI to go well beyond the mere plating of seeds to the firm condemnation of humanism in all of its nefarious forms, taking up once more the sword of truth in defense of the Sovereign rights of Christ the King, restoring to Him the exalted throne that He earned by His passion, death and resurrection, calling every would be inhabitant of the City of God, including those who occupy places of civil authority, to account on His behalf.
[NOTE: At this point in time, nearly a year into the pontificate of Pope Francis, it is safe to say that, apart from Divine intervention, he is not the Successor of Peter who will restore the crown to Christ the King.]
When faced with the frightful image of the unthinkable rupture outlined in this article, surely many will choose to deny the obvious, preferring instead to imagine that the Church in our day, with its tendency to focus on the dignity of humankind apart from Him whose glory it can only hope to reflect, is simply constructing the “big tent” necessary to inaugurate that elusive New Springtime.
Even so, I take comfort in knowing that the same was true even as St. Augustine wrote, “The men against whom I have undertaken to defend the City of God laugh at all this.” [xi]
Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun.
[i] One such example: “Seven years before the UN document was approved, Pope Pius XII used a radio address to push for such a universal statement.” William Donohue, Why Catholicism Matters, Random House, 2012
[ii] Gaudium et Spes – 22
[iii] Gaudium et Spes – 19
[iv] Immortale Dei – 3
[v] Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris – 143, 144
[vi] Pope Paul V, Message to the United Nations, Dec. 10, 1973
[vii] Pope John Paul II, Message to the United Nations, Nov. 30, 1998
[viii] Pope John XXIII, ibid.
[ix] Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the United Nations General Assembly, April 18, 2008
[x] Pope Benedict XVI, ibid.
[xi] St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Ch. 12
Dear Louie, this is a much needed ‘subject’ in our time, since, so many Catholics in the name of ‘human respect, human dignity’……. blindly deny the truth of the Church. The moment ‘truth’ is compromised, ‘error’ penetrates thru the ‘cracks’ and become corrupt. From such was born the so-called ‘liberty of conscience’ (abortion, gay-rights), ‘false dignity of human person’, ‘false religious dignity’, and a ‘universal right to tolerance’! From such, the intelligence of a human person adheres to false ideas, even’ ‘will’ to do evil. Today we are witnessing the ‘flowers’ and their ‘fruits’……….Ave Maria!
……from Our Lord Jesus Christ………”THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE!”
……from Pope Leo XIII……
“Teaching should have as an object only true things”…..
“A deadly and abominable freedom, the true oppression of the masses.”…..
“Under the seductive name of freedom of cult, they proclaim the legal apostasy of society”………
“Indifferentism is atheism minus the name”…….
“Liberty consists in the fact that, by the help of the civil laws, we can live more easily according to the prescriptions of the ETERNAL LAW”
….from ‘unknown’……”The majority does not make the truth; it is the truth that should make the majority”.
Halina,
Thanks for those quotes. I will post some on my twitter account.
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It looks like Card Burke is indeed the coward I had suspected him of being ever since he was interviewed about Evangelii Gaudium. This is what, ladies and gentlemen, Card Burke has to say about Nope Francis:
“Pope Francis has spoken unambiguously on abortion, contraception, marriage”
I guess he is a full-fledged card carrying modernist after all.
Oh well, if my judgment of Card Burke is too harsh, really he ought to readily forgive me because as His Phoniness has said:
“Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”
Yup, you heard that right, murderers from Planned Parenthood, the “Holy Father” wishes to tell you that your conscience need not be troubled, since you are just following your conscience’s dictates.
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Miserere Domine!
Forgot to include link for quote from Card Burke:
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=20585
The main problem since Pope John XXIII first praised the UN in his Encyclical “Pacem in terris” is the collaboration of the following Popes with the United Nations and the resulting shift from obeying Gods commandments to the fight for “human rights”. Not many realize that it is only the UN who can determine what these “rights” are.
For example:
The history of LGTB rights at the UN
https://www.unfe.org/
Fact sheet
International Human Rights Law and Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity
https://unfe-uploads-production.s3.amazonaws.com/unfe-6-UN_Fact_Sheets_v6_-_International_Human_Rights_Law__and_Sexual_Orientation___Gender_Identity.pdf
The development of International Law is one of the primary goals of the United Nations.
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/internationallaw/
The Fatima center has made a good video about the real nature of the UN:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pHX0JOq6m4
Just because Cardinal Burke does not diss the Pope does not make him a modernist. He is in between a rock and a hard place. We know we should not criticize the Pope and we do not want to. St. Don Bosco and other saints spoke about that clearly. This leaves the faithful in a difficult situation when they see the things that are going on and feel duty bound to speak of them. As laity we have more freedom than the clergy who are honor bound to obedience, etc. I think many priests, etc. are alarmed and doing their best to see a charitable view of things. It gets harder.
I had someone just send me a link of the Holy Father’s greeting to ‘bishop’ Tony Palmer and calling for Christian unity. This absolutely cannot happen without God’s intervention. We are too far apart with 50,000 sorts of protestants believing whatever they want this week. Many accept intrinsic evils which we never ever can do. But many dumbed down Catholics think all this ‘brother’ stuff is just swell. See how loving and humble our Holy Father is. Except if you like tradition—not to whine or anything.
An excellent piece, thank you for re-posting. That the Church of Christ has in the last 56 years completely abandoned its commitment to – even belief in! – the Social Reign of Christ the King, and rolled over to lick the feet of Masonic humanism and a novus ordo seclorum, is the surest sign that something terrible is wrong. The infamous statement by Paul VI on the floor of the UN in 1965 is as sickening as the photographs of his fealty being offered that day.
Instead of the reign of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, the hierarchy presents to humanity in these post-conciliar times merely a limp-wristed moral nag, a platitude-espousing irritant comprised of ageing bachelors (and worse), whose moral authority even now appears to have been jettisoned by a chief executive who can’t obsess about such matters, and anyway who is he to judge?
I had forgotten the quote on papally-authorised moral relativism mentioned above by Edu – one would wonder how, but there have been so many atrocious such statements following hard on the heels of one another over less than 12 months that it is difficult to keep up. The “infallibility of the faithful” lark came to mind recently from those distant days when we were shocked that a Pope might err.
May I ask, Mr Verrecchio, how you fared with the Defensor Doctrinae project? It would be an invaluable resource as this papacy continues, though I would expect almost prohibitively time-consuming given the endless material. Perhaps there is a way to crowd-source? You have a large following of Catholics who would no doubt be eager to assist.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37)
The real meaning of life is to save our immortal soul. Man was not made by God to search continually for pleasure, entertainment, money, fame. Man was put in this world to know, love and serve God, and to be happy with Him forever in the next world. Then, our ‘only’ and ‘one’ purpose is to get to heaven…..if, men don’t serve God who made him, he will go to hell…….forever!
From such, we conclude that those who are ‘consecrated to God’ as Shepherds in care of their sheep, who are placed in the ‘army of Jesus Christ’ , yet, tried like gold in the fire, but, who fail to preach to the world such ‘truths’, by their ‘false Charity” and ‘liberal actions’ have determined ‘their’ eternal sentence…..heaven or hell! Miserere!
…..from ‘They Have Uncrowned Him” by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre…….”Then we learned, with amazement, of the plot of penetration of the Catholic hierarchy by the liberal sect; we have seen its progress, right up to the highest posts, and its triumph at the Second Vatican Council. We have had liberal Popes. The first liberal Pope, the one who scoffed at the ‘prophets of doom,’ convoked the first liberal council in the history of the Church. And the gates of the sheepfold have been opened, and the wolves have come into the flock; and they have massacred the sheep. There came the second liberal pope, the double-faced Pope, the humanist Pope; he overturned the altar, abolished the Sacrifice, profaned the sanctuary (Daniel 9:27; Matt. 24:15). The third liberal Pope has come on the scene, the Pope of the rights of man, the ecumenist Pope, the Pope of the United Religions; and he has washed his hands, he has veiled his face in front of so many heaped-up ruins, in order not to see the bleeding wounds of the Daughter of Sion, the mortal injuries of the immaculate Spouse of Jesus Christ………while they are destroying, we have the contentment of rebuilding. A still greater happiness: generations of young priests are participating with zeal in this task of reconstruction of the Church FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS!”
………and then came the FORTH, and then the FIFTH………Domine, Miserere Nobis!
Our Father, Thy Kingdom come! Long live Christ the King! Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful! O Mary, be our Queen, we belong to Thee!
So only PBXVI dared to, even, gently, contradict the miserable humanism of the false religionists and atheists and violent tyrants who take the seats in the UN. Modernism makes people weak, it seems, morally and spiritually weak – it certainly cultivates useless idiots. Bishop Bergoglio; a soldier for Christ the King?
Halina quoted: while they are destroying, we have the contentment of rebuilding.
meanwhile people get really upset if one doesn’t accept that VII is some sort binding ‘superdogma’; something that Benedict, before he was Pope, was willing to openly contradict as well. so many people now believe that this thing called VII and its ‘spirit’, is the ‘church’.
Martina: on one the LGBT UN site: ‘only violence and hatred should be punished, not love.’ I guess it is the UN who is redefining violence, hatred and love. Since there are so many violent tyrants and advocates against God and natural law running the thing. But then again, they called the ‘natural’ a ‘theory’ in the Vatican survey. When I pointed this out on a Catholic blog someone said that it ‘is only a theory’.
This is such a crucial essay. Thank you, Sir, so very much. There is no human dignity where the Creator’s design for human nature is being contradicted and even spat upon. It shouldn’t take any Catholic to say that: it should have been a verbal drumbeat from Rome for the past 50 years. Why do the good people on this board think it hasn’t been?
The primordial problem is this: If we get God wrong, we get humanity wrong. Since the Greatest Council Ever, the Church has permitted a reshaping of the very identity of God Himself. This has led to the inversion of the Two Great Commandments given to us by Our Lord. Neighbor comes before God. This is the essence of the social Gospel. Mary, our Mother, save us!
Sean
…..please forgive me, but I just had to pass this on…..from Tradition in Action…..
…..Oh, the glory of the New Pentecost….Church……
Bergoglio’s heavy-metal priest
Fr. Cesar Scicchitano, is the parish priest of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Buenos Aires. “After saying Mass or performing a Baptism,” he affirms, “I go out and play [rock ‘n roll] in bars, do shows and go to tour with my band.” His heavy-metal band is called Los Pecadores, or The Sinners. Scicchitano is the lead singer of the band, singing and playing the electronic keyboard.
When Cardinal Bergoglio was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he used to ask Fr. Cesar’s band to perform at many of his Masses. Scicchitano and Bergoglio have been friends for almost two decades, sharing a tight bond the musician likened to a father-son relationship. Today, the priest states: “Francis has rock inside him, because rock is all about breaking down structures.”
The priest said he recently received a letter from the Pope urging him “to keep rocking and reinforce his message from onstage.”
Fr. Cesar signed a contract with Sony for his next record. On this topic he comments: “His first miracle as Pope could be this – that I will sign with Sony. As Archbishop, he wrote letters presenting me to companies encouraging them to hear my songs, but I had never had the luck to get anywhere with it. Then was not like today, with the great boom of interest around his person.”
The priest’s main hit is the song “I want a Latin American Pope,” written two years before Bergoglio’s election. “I also wrote a song about prostitutes at Bergoglio’s request,” he declared.
Data and photos taken from China Post (here), Religion en Libertad (here) and a video on his hit song (here).
Sorry, Magdalen, but the Church teaches that we have not only the right, but the duty, to criticize a Pope who teaches against the faith.
@A Catholic Thinker: most catholics i come across have thrown out the ‘authentic magisterium’, the Papal Office, Tradition, Dogma and Doctrine and have started worshiping the ‘spirit of vii’ and person of Francis.
More reasons to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US.
Saluto,
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When you have 80+% of neo-pagans (and I mean literally atheists) giving Nope Francis the thumbs up, you KNOW we have a SERIOUS, SERIOUS problem in our hands.
that’s it – the world is luuuurving Frankie – it didn’t luuuuurve Benedict – OK it luuurved jpii. there’s a pattern forming – if the world loves the pope, he’s Simon over peter pretender.
“The comments offered above are attributable to none other than Popes John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II respectively.”
.
## That was pretty obvious. It seems that the only thing that could possibly prevent the beatification & canonisation of that bunch of losers, is if they had been caught red-handed offering human sacrifice to Beelzebub, Lord of the Abyss.
How far can one go in trashing the Faith, before it becomes impossible for one to be thought a Saint ? A very very very very very very very very very very long way.
If this, and all their other zealous acts of dissent from the Faith, is not in enough to send their causes into reverse, what is ?
And if they can spew out false teaching & scandals, & all their other vomit & lawlessness & impiety – why has it been such a big deal when mere priests commit far lesser abuses & errors ? The NuChurch is so utterly inconsistent & unprincipled, that it is impossible to take seriously. The sooner it collapses under the weight of its own nonsensicality, the better for Catholics & for the human race.
How can the Church or the Pope be infallible in teaching, when Popes reverse the teaching of their predecessors in this way ? To call the Church or Papacy infallible, when it rejects Catholic doctrine like this, is to use words to mean nothing. This NuChurch drivel is an assault upon the intelligence, a raping of the ability to form concepts that have meaning. It is the sort of mind-rape in which cults indulge. The NuChurch does not see this.
well put, Jimmy. The nuchurch is ‘utterly inconsistent and unprincipled’ – but what is maddening is that all would have us take it seriously – it is the emperors new clothes, and we are expected not to blush and not to snicker?
Per St. Thomas Aquinas man can lose his dignity when he loses his relationship with God. And what so called human “rights” are there and who decides what they are? What about the right to hate evil? Thank you Louie for pointing out the insanity of our previous popes (save Benedict a little), I am concerned for their souls. God bless~
Our “dignity” is directly correlated to our likeness to God. We were made in His likeness, and thence derived our dignity.
.
Then we lost it in The Fall.
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Only Christ can give it back to us. Look around you. Humanity is shedding any remnants of its dignity as quickly as it sheds its remnants of Christianity and any effort to ffollow the natural law that is written in our hearts.
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The U.N. can only undermine the dignity of man, not elevate it.
Paul