Dignitas Infinita: A Syllabus of Errors for the 21st Century?

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith’s declaration Dignitas Infinita states two primary purposes: to clarify the meaning of dignity and condemn violations of dignity. Human dignity has come to be a “brand” of Catholic morality and the word has had several meanings. The first task is creative and constructive and offers a narrative on the development of the church’s moral teaching. The Dicastery offers “a fourfold distinction of the concept of dignity.” The second, a list of actions and practices that violate dignity, is a collection of statements from the Vatican. This essay argues that three of the four understandings of dignity are helpful in addressing social issues and that the central idea of the text, ontological dignity, is not developed and pushed through to its conclusions. The essay questions the listing of the “grave violations of human dignity" not seeing correlation and causation between them, condemning without offering ways of responding, and seemingly stating a moral equivalence among them.