Our dignity, who or what gives it to us? The money? The fame? The things? The laws?

None of that. We have it since our birth.

Each person is unique and he or she must be respected in his or her singularity. However, a lot of situations are fighting against that respect.
Being unique does not mean clothing or speaking in one way or another. Our dignity manifests, expresses and realizes through intelligence, moral awareness, and freedom. We can understand the things surrounding us to assess if they are right or wrong and act accordingly. And that makes a difference between us and other creatures on Earth. As we can understand reality, we can also guide our existence; we can choose and act responsibly.

We understand dignity as a gift as much as a duty. It’s not enough to chase our own dignity. The duty of taking care of others dignity grows from our intelligence, awareness, and freedom. Everything in this duty is about taking care for ourselves, the others and nature.

Living among other people (also called as the ‘social dimension’) leads us right into solidarity with others. The human person must be at the core of every decision, either it is political, economic or social. The safest and effective way to reach happiness and justice is to emphasize the value of each human being.

Inside people, both individual and social dimension are inseparable, so each person grows when solidarity is built and he or she diminishes when solidarity is destroyed.

So, everything in social life and political action must be subordinated to the recognition and accomplishment of mankind dignity. It’s not enough to elect a person representing my ideas, but someone who fights for the common good.

The human rights are closely related to the promotion of human dignity. Those human rights cannot be considered as granted rights, but recognized ones. No one has to grant them to us. We have those rights because we were born. And they carry with many duties.

Recognition of Human Rights demands in the first place to give priority to the practical and effective recognition of impoverished people rights. They have been rejected from exercising the most fundamental rights in their lives. The existence of impoverished people can be considered as the practical deny of a humankind dignity.

For the Catholic church, human dignity has a double sacred nature: mankind was made in God’s image and God himself became a person through Jesus.