Human dignity the focus for Support Life Sunday 2024

Catholics are being encouraged to reflect on the infinite dignity of every person as the Church in Aotearoa New Zealand marks Support Life Sunday on October 13.

Each year, the Catholic Church chooses a key theme for Support Life Sunday. The Vatican’s document Dignitas Infinita (On Human Dignity) is the focus for 2024.

Published earlier this year by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Infinita reaffirms “the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology”.

After developing the concept of human dignity, the document reflects on what this means for individual human rights and how this impacts on our freedom in the moral and social spheres.

It then highlights some ways in which that dignity can be violated, including through poverty, war, human trafficking, sexual abuse, abortion and euthanasia.

“Support Life Sunday offers us a chance to dedicate our prayers, our thoughts and our actions towards an issue of significance,” said Bishop Steve Lowe, president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.

“The intrinsic dignity of the human person is central to the Catholic understanding of our world, and being ready and willing to identify and condemn violations of human dignity is part of our Christian calling.”

The resources prepared for Support Life Sunday by the NZ Catholic Bioethics Centre – the Nathaniel Centre pick up on that principle with the tagline “Every person matters… always! He mea nui te ora o ngā tāngata katoa... i ngā wā katoa!”

Drawing from Dignitas Infinita, the Catholic understanding of each person’s value and worth “calls us to work tirelessly for justice for the weak and needy, the poor and afflicted, the vulnerable, the most insignificant, the marginalised and those downtrodden by the powerful,” said Dr John Kleinsman, director of the Nathaniel Centre.

Bishop Lowe said the Church’s invitation – and its challenge – to focus on human dignity is enduring, not limited to a single Sunday.

“We see Support Life Sunday as an opportunity to reaffirm a central and ubiquitous teaching of the Church and we hope it can be imprinted in our hearts and our minds as a daily calling,” he said.

“We also hope this day of reflection might encourage more people to read the document in full. Parishes might like to establish a study group to undertake that task.”

Resources, including prayers, social media graphics and slides, can be found at: https://bit.ly/SupportLife2024