Almost all Catholic moral and social teaching rests on two primary foundations. Last week, I covered the first pillar in that we are created in the image of God. The second pillar is that of the birth of Jesus, the incarnation. When God took on flesh like ours, God gave each human being a special dignity not in words, but by God's action. We all know Jesus died for us, but even more amazing if you think about it, He was born for us. We were worth being born for...worth taking on flesh for.
Jesus was once a grouping of stem cells, an embryo, and a fetus. Is it hard to see why the Church would defend the rights of the pre-born? Not when our savior was once a pre-born himself. Jesus gave the dignity to the pre-born just as He gave us dignity as human beings.
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." (Jeremiah 1:5) We believe in the omniscience of God and that God has known who we are from all eternity. Human beings have a special place before God in His created order.
With these two pillars as foundations, the Church will always teach that everything done must be done to promote, protect, and defend the dignity of a human being, and at all costs. Of course, there are many things that defend and harm human dignity at the very same time. If a mother will die unless the baby is aborted, what is the answer? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers at times and I would step aside on this question to a moral theologian. However, many things we believe can be answered simply by applying the same respect to humanity as God does.
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