Is it possible to have rights for all and to have responsibilities connected to these rights in order to ensure that these rights for everyone are possible?
Our Catholic Social Teaching principle Rights and Responsibilities sheds some light on this question for us.
The principle states, “The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met. Therefore, every person has a fundamental right to life and a right to those things required for human decency. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities — to one another, to our families, and to the larger society.” (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops “Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching,” usccb.org)
This principle stresses the importance of human dignity, rights, and responsibilities as well as the interrelatedness of these three key life and faith dimensions.
The Catholic Church is a world leader and advocate certainly for human rights, stresses the importance of connected responsibilities to these rights, and promotes life and dignity in every way and for everyone.
Two concrete ways the Diocese of Madison and our Office of Human Life and Dignity live this out are through the newly formed Human Life and Dignity Association, and a quarterly electronic newsletter that will be published soon.
Organization meeting held
On September 17, a Human Life and Dignity Association organizational meeting was held at the Diocese of Madison’s Holy Name Heights with the goal of continuing to support human life and dignity work and to do even more in promoting and integrating human life and dignity everywhere throughout our 11 counties.
The purpose of having an association is two-fold:
• To form an association in our diocese for Catholics who are involved in ministry and work to support human life and dignity in every aspect, for the purpose of formation, organization, information sharing, strategic planning, and collaboration.
• The association would provide support both to the diocese and parishes in our efforts to promote human life and dignity for all human beings and in every way possible.
We want to expand our membership; currently, the group is for:
• Catholic leaders in every parish involved in social concerns (pro-life, anti-human trafficking, rural life, care for God’s creation, food and shelter, support of the Diocese of Jacmel in Haiti and of the Diocese of Navrango-Bolgatanga in Ghana).
• Catholic leaders involved in community outreach (non-violent collaboration, business, and political leaders).
• St. Vincent de Paul members, Knights of Columbus, etc.
It was a very blessed and productive day in many ways.
Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison started the day with prayer, a welcome, and opening remarks.
I shared the vision of the Office of Human Life and Dignity and our hoped-for outcomes and purpose for the day and for the association.
We had a talk from Beth Knobbe, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Midwest regional team community engagement manager, about starting CRS chapters in our diocese, which we are working on starting as soon as possible.
Additionally, we had summary talks from several key Catholic group leaders in the Diocese of Madison including:
• Barbara Sella, Wisconsin Catholic Conference executive director
• Shawn Carney, Catholic Charities of Madison executive director
• Megan Wedwick, Apostolate for Persons with Disabilities co-director
• Susanna Herro, Walking with Moms in Need diocesan coordinator
• Susan Welton, Anti-Human Trafficking Ministry liaison with the diocese
• Trudi Jenny, Care for God’s Creation Ministry.
We ended the gathering with small group and large group sharing in regards to building greater human life and dignity strategies, communication, structures, etc. that will benefit Catholics and all people throughout all eleven counties in the Diocese of Madison.
Further discussion
Four questions drove our small and large group sharing: What are the hoped-for outcomes through greater collaboration?; How can we make this happen?; What would our priorities be?; How can the Diocese of Madison create greater communication about what everyone is doing?
A great and concrete suggestion that stemmed from the Human Life and Dignity Association organizational meeting was to start an electronic newsletter.
Our quarterly newsletter will include announcements about upcoming or recent human life and dignity events, information to help a group or individuals, important reminders about relevant topics, a list of organizations to promote, etc.
The hoped-for outcome for the electronic newsletter is to help with better serving the people of God in all of our 11 counties and beyond and doing it together as disciples of Christ as we help to build God’s Kingdom together with our Lord guiding our ministry.
Check our diocesan website over the course of the next few weeks to read the first newsletter.
You may discover ways you want to get further involved in our great diocese.
If you want to be part of or help any of the groups listed in this column, email me at the email address below and I will forward your name and email address to the appropriate ministerial leader and they will contact you in the near future.
Thank you for all that you do and have a most blessed and joy-filled Christmas Season!
Dr. Chris McAtee is the director of the Office of Human Life and Dignity and publishes his Building the Kingdom of God Together each month in the Catholic Herald. To contact Chris, you can email him at [email protected]