How we can stand for rights

In South Africa we celebrate Human Rights Day on March 21 each year to remind us of the great suffering and loss of life that accompanied the struggle for human rights in our country. The day serves to remind us that people in South Africa will never again be denied their human rights.

The Catholic Church has always recognised, commented on and responded to the human rights issues in the world. As Christians we need to respond to the human rights abuse we see around us and to actively want to change the conditions in society.

The social teachings of the Catholic Church provide us with guidelines for doing this. They are a collection of documents written by popes, Church councils, bishops, episcopal conferences and special commissions, and they challenge us to look at our society and the world in a different way and to question the things we take for granted and just accept, because “that’s the way things are”.

Instead of just accepting the world as we find it, we need to analyse it and our community using the teachings of the Church. Then we will be able to act appropriately and responsibly as Christians.

The Church’s Social Teachings provide us with guidelines for working out the action we should be taking as Christians in response to the needs and problems in our community and our world.

The Catholic Social Teaching principle which speaks about our human rights is that of the dignity of the human person. It teaches us that human life is sacred.

Belief in the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching. The dignity of the human person is the starting point for a moral vision for society. This principle is grounded in the idea that the person is made in the image of God. The person is the clearest reflection of God among us.

Human rights are the rights that everyone is supposed to have, simply because they are human beings. They are the rights we all have from the moment we are born. We do not have to earn them and they should not be taken away from us.

They include the right to life, food and shelter, to education, to free movement, to privacy, to own your own things and so on.

And to protect these rights is not just a political issue. We do not have to get involved in politics to defend human rights. It is our Christian duty and moral obligation and there are many ways we can do this.

In your church societies and sodalities or faith-sharing groups you can reflect on the social teaching on human dignity and pray that the dignity of all people will be respected.

You can also decide what you can do to raise awareness about the dignity of all people and what you can do to practically assist people whose basic human rights to food, shelter and education have been violated.

This is what we are called to do in Proverbs: “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (31:8-9).

The full text of Vatican II’s social teaching document, Dignitatis Humanae (“Dignity of the Human person”), can be viewed at http://bit.ly/mi5R0