Culture Project Missionaries Define Human Dignity

During the second installment of “Called to Love,” a series of three virtual high school events featuring The Culture Project, its Pittsburgh missionaries Erick Marquez and Olivia Buak dove into human dignity. Fifteen high schoolers virtually joined as the missionaries explained what human dignity is, why it is important, and why it should be upheld.
 
Buak explained that while human accomplishments can be impressive, they are not what give humans their inherent dignity.
 
“We are amazing and exciting just because we exist,” she said, noting the remarkable complexities of human anatomy. Each person’s 60,000 miles of blood vessels could wrap the world 2.5 times, and brain impulses that move at 250 miles per hour.
 
Marquez noted that each person possesses a unique set of DNA that has never existed before and will never exist again.
 
“If you didn’t exist, the whole course of human history would be changed,” he said.
 
The missionaries traced the steps and details of human development in the womb. At eight weeks, when growing baby is the size of a blueberry, doctors can already detect brain waves. Both the uniqueness of each human person and the details involved in his or her development make him or her irreplaceable and deserving of dignity, the missionaries said.
 
Though each person possesses this intrinsic worth, dehumanization robs people of the love and respect that is rightfully theirs. Historically, the horrors of slavery and the Holocaust serve as prime examples, the missionaries said.
 
Dehumanization looks different today, but still presides in the culture in many forms, they explained. In high schools, dehumanization can look like bulling, cyberbullying, and gossip.
 
“Your dignity does not change because another person fails to uphold it,” Marquez said. Reputations do not follow students from high school, but how they feel about themselves does.
 
Abortion, human trafficking, and pornography are also modern-day forms of dehumanization, the missionaries explained. Though dehumanization exists in diverse forms today, it does not erase the fact that at their core, human beings desire to be loved, not used. This love can be expressed romantically, but also by friends, family, and teachers.
 
As a modern example of this love, Marquez detailed the live of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest who gave his life in Auschwitz concentration camp so that a fellow prisoner who had a family could live. That man was present at St. Maximilian Kolbe’s canonization.
 
Acts of love like that restore human dignity to the culture and begin with loving others in small ways, the missionaries said. Buak offered practical tips: begin by loving oneself and keeping friends who support one’s dignity. She also recommended striving to do a simple act of love each day.
 
The final Called to Love virtual event on May 14 focuses on social media. For more information or to register, visit: https://diopitt.org/called-to-love.

Photo credit: Kate Capato at Visual Grace