Dignitas Infinita

We love everybody.

Every human being is a subject of infinite dignity, as Pope Francis said, dignitas infinita.

And so that goes to gay people, the trans people, everybody.

So it's not a question of trying to be difficult or exclusive and all that.

um one thing that we have to specify here is what is this increasing awareness of the dignity of the person and you have people like for example pope saint john paul ii who talks about how even after a criminal commits a horrible act they are still viewed in the eyes of god as somebody with objective infinite value they are still loved and pursued by the creator and so what john paul ii says then is that basically that is what shields the person from violence and Now, as we go on, you know, I've looked at the different documents of the church.

What you see resoundingly in things like Dignitas Infinita, which came from the I think it was the CDF at the time.

Now it's the DDF.

But the CDF basically said, OK, look, violence is now restricted in light of human dignity to two circumstances.

it called

to mind for me in the Summa, where Thomas Aquinas is talking about putting to death the murderer, that through their sin, I have the quote here, he says, "...by sinning man departs from the order of reason and consequently falls away from the dignity of his manhood insofar as he is naturally free and exists for himself and he falls into the slavish state of the beasts by being disposed of according as he is useful to others." And...

What we have in the document in Dignitas Infinita, you see these distinctions being laid out between the ontological, moral, social, and existential dignity of man.

And there are distinctions being made between what sorts of dignity can be lost and which sorts cannot be lost.

It concludes by saying, "The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." The catechism further states that the church works for the abolition of capital punishment worldwide.

In 2024, the Vatican's doctrinal declaration, Dignitas infinita, went further in its language, stating in paragraph 34, "The death penalty violates the inalienable dignity of every person, regardless of the circumstances." So these are obviously strong statements, and they deserve to be taken seriously, and they're also the same sentiments that Pope Leo references in his recent remarks that I referenced earlier.

But here's where the theological difficulty arises.

If capital punishment violates the inalienable dignity of every human person, regardless of circumstances, how are we to understand the church's earlier teaching that it could sometimes be morally permissible? Does the newer teaching represent a legitimate development of doctrine? Does it concern the practical application of an unchanging moral principle, or does the wording suggest something that's genuinely difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with Catholic tradition? These are the questions that have sparked debate among Catholics for years now.

As we'll see, there's nothing particularly revolutionary about Catholics arguing that executions should be rare or even avoided altogether.

His concern is more fundamental.

If the church previously taught that capital punishment can be morally legitimate but now teaches that it violates human dignity regardless of circumstances, doesn't that seem to imply that the church was wrong before? And if the church is now effectively teaching that capital punishment is intrinsically evil, what are we to make of the scriptural passages, papal statements, and theological tradition that treated it as permissible? Feser maintains that the language of Dignitas infinita is especially difficult to reconcile with the earlier teaching.

Now, one might respond that Catholic doctrine develops over time, and obviously it does.

He's just cherry picking the statements that affirm the correct position.

For the doctrine of the faith published Dignitas Infinita.

My Latin is horrible.

I apologize.