Auspice Maria: The Dignity and Value of Every Human Life
I am truly saddened by the recent death of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford. The diocesan community and I have prayed for the repose of his soul, for the consolation of his family, and for all those affected by the tragic and confusing circumstances of his death, including the law enforcement officers involved. Following Mr. Durán Guerrero’s death, I have received different requests concerning how I should respond. These requests and reactions have led me to reflect on a deeper issue: our society’s increasingly fragmented understanding of the dignity of the human person. At this moment in our history, I feel that Maine must undertake a serious examination of its collective conscience. We must also recognize that radical secularism, by removing God and the transcendent dimension of the human person from our public conversation about human dignity, threatens our common well-being. We need not surrender to division, indifference, or despair. Despite our societal problems, conversion of heart remains both possible and necessary if we are to recover a more consistent and humane respect for every human life.
Because the human person is endowed with freedom and agency, we can easily assume that our decisions are solely our own concern. Yet freedom is never exercised in isolation. The human person is social by nature, and each of us belongs to communities whose welfare is affected by the choices we make and the laws we enact. This is the meaning of human solidarity: we bear responsibility not only for ourselves but also, in some measure, for the common good. Maine therefore needs to examine what its laws communicate about the dignity of the human person. Our state permits abortion after viability when a physician judges it necessary according to the applicable standard of care; allows competent adult Maine residents who have a terminal disease and meet the statutory requirements to obtain medication that they may self-administer to end their lives; and, under specified conditions, permits minors aged sixteen or older to consent to gender-affirming hormone therapy without parental consent.¹ Although these issues differ, each raises fundamental questions about how we understand the human body, vulnerability, dependence, and the value of human life. We cannot decry some offenses against integral human development while accepting others simply because they are defended in the language of individual rights. Authentic freedom must be ordered toward truth, responsibility, and the common good. What, then, do our legislative decisions reveal about our collective understanding of the human person?
Our present laws and partisan divisions reveal a fragmented answer to that question. In Maine, as elsewhere, we sometimes uphold the asserted rights of one person while diminishing the dignity or legitimate claims of another. This fragmentation reflects a secularism that increasingly excludes God, transcendence, and objective moral truth from public life. The problem is not a civil government that respects the proper distinction between Church and state. Nor is the problem that society places the human person at the center of its concern, for every just society should do so. The problem arises when the person is understood as radically autonomous, free to define human nature and moral truth according to individual desire. When no truth is acknowledged as standing above political consensus, rights can become dependent upon public opinion, legislative majorities, or those who possess the greatest influence or economic power. The vulnerable and voiceless are then placed at particular risk. This is the danger of moral relativism: what is considered right or just changes according to who controls the institutions of power. A healthy democracy must therefore recognize that certain moral principles are not created by governments or majorities. They are grounded in the nature and dignity of the human person, can be known through reason, and remain true regardless of who holds political authority. Recognizing these objective truths helps protect society from ideological rule and from the tyranny of the majority.
Representative democracy has given Americans significant protections against tyranny, but no society is entirely immune from the misuse of power. Tyranny does not appear only through dictatorships or overt political oppression. It can also emerge when ideology is imposed without honest debate, when religious liberty is treated as an inconvenience, or when those with greater political, cultural, or economic influence silence the concerns of the less powerful. Such tendencies violate human dignity and weaken the social bonds necessary for the common good. Laws and institutions must therefore be examined and reformed, but lasting reform also requires conversion of heart. Conversion begins not simply with changing our opinions but by allowing Jesus Christ, through his grace, to transform our hearts. It requires the honest recognition that I can be selfish, governed by self-interest, and unwilling to listen. As my heart is converted, I begin to recognize that the poor and vulnerable are not always immediately visible and that every person deserves patience, respect, and a willingness to engage in sincere dialogue. Conversion also requires humility: I am not the author of truth but one who must seek it. Before condemning another, I must first remove the plank from my own eye. We all need this conversion. Were it to take place on a broad scale, it would not only change individual lives but also transform the laws, institutions, and social structures we create together.
Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, which is radically different from the political kingdoms of his time and ours. Its governing law is the law of love, which calls us to recognize every person as our neighbor and to accept responsibility for creating a society in which human beings are cared for and valued. Conversion of heart therefore gives rise to a culture of life built upon solidarity, the common good, and a proper understanding of the human person. In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Saint John Paul II offered prophetic counsel that remains remarkably relevant today: “The value of democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes” (Evangelium Vitae, no. 70). Near the conclusion of the encyclical, he added, “There can be no true democracy without a recognition of every person’s dignity and without respect for his or her rights” (Evangelium Vitae, no. 101).² His words remind us that the defense of human life is not a narrow political concern but an essential foundation for democracy, peace, and genuinely human coexistence. Christian hope assures us that suffering and death do not have the final word because Jesus Christ has conquered death. This hope consoles those who mourn, including the family and loved ones of Mr. Durán Guerrero, but it also places a responsibility upon us. His dignity did not depend upon his nationality, political usefulness, or the circumstances in which he died. The law enforcement officers involved also possess an inherent dignity that must be respected. We must reverence and protect every human life, from conception until natural death, and recognize the dignity of every person, especially those who are vulnerable, forgotten, or easily condemned. Through conversion of heart, Maine need not remain trapped in division and fragmentation. It can become more fully a common home in which every human life is respected, protected, and loved.
- Bishop James T. Ruggieri
¹ See Maine Revised Statutes, Title 22, §1598, concerning abortion; Title 22, §2140, the Maine Death with Dignity Act; and Title 22, §1508, concerning consent by certain minors to gender-affirming hormone therapy.
² Saint John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), nos. 70 and 101, March 25, 1995.
