New Vatican document on human rights condemns gender theory, digital violence

The Vatican has released a new document updating the Church’s teachings on human rights, touching on contemporary issues such as abortion, gender theory, sex change and digital violence.

The Holy See, in its press statement, said the Declaration "Dignitas infinita" (Infinite dignity in English) took the Church’s doctrinal watchdog, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, five years to complete. It said it builds on the past decade’s papal teaching on war, poverty, violence against migrants, violence against women, abortion, surrogate motherhood, euthanasia, gender theory and digital violence.

The four-chapter document dedicates the first three chapters discussing the Church’s fundamental principles on human rights while the last chapter discusses "some grave violations of human dignity" which includes recent recent papal teachings on bioethics. 

The "non-exhaustive" list of “violations of human dignity” mentioned were abortion, euthanasia and surrogate motherhood alongside war, poverty and human trafficking.

The declaration begins by insisting that the "ontological dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed in Jesus Christ".

This is an "inalienable dignity”, corresponding to "human nature apart from all cultural change". It is a "gift" and therefore present in "an unborn child, an unconscious person, or an older person in distress, it said.

Dignitas infinita added that the Church “proclaims the equal dignity of all people, regardless of their living conditions or qualities" , and she does so on the basis of biblical revelation: women and men are created in the image of God.

It noted that "the concept of human dignity is also occasionally misused to justify an arbitrary proliferation of new rights … as if the ability to express and realize every individual preference or subjective desire should be guaranteed."

The Declaration listed two groups of violations: those that violate human dignity and those that violate life.

Offenses against human dignity include "subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, degrading working conditions where individuals are treated as mere tools for profit rather than free and responsible persons."

Offences against life are “murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and willful suicide” must be recognized as contrary to human dignity ", but also "all violations of the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture, undue psychological pressures."

It also mentioned the death penalty as a violation against life since it "violates the inalienable dignity of every person, regardless of the circumstances."

Gender theory

Dignita infinita stressed that "every sign of unjust discrimination” against homosexual persons “is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence," noting that it is “contrary to human dignity.”  

It added that that in some places “not a few people are “imprisoned, tortured and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation."

It described gender theory as “extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal".

“Human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God. This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes … amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God".

It said gender theory "intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference” and that all attempts to obscure the sexual difference between man and woman” are “to be rejected".

The Vatican document also condemned sex change as it "risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception." However, the Vatican is lenient on cases of genital abnormalities giving its approval to patients who “may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities".

Digital violence

The Vatican addressed what it calls “digital violence” spreading through social media” such as cyberbullying and pornography, leading to the “exploitation of persons for sexual purposes or through gambling”.

The document concluded by the encouraging the “promotion of the dignity of every human person, regardless of their physical, mental, cultural, social, and religious characteristics.”

It ended by quoting Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si: “I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us.”

The draft of the document was approved by Pope Francis on March 25, 2024 and released on April 2, 2024, to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the death of Pope St. John Paul II.

The declaration was issued to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirms "the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology”.

The Vatican said the declaration addressed the need to stress the Church’s teaching on beginning-and-end-of-life issues, while defending the poor and migrants against attacks on their human dignity.