Equality and Non-discrimination

Catholic Roots, Current Challenges

Jane F. Adolphe, Robert L. Fastiggi, Michael A. Vacca, Jane F. Adolphe, Robert L. Fastiggi

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781532637216, 9781532646416
• eBook ISBN: 9781532646423
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

This volume explores ways of understanding equality and non-discrimination. Drawing on the timeless logic of realist philosophy, Catholic morality, and Catholic social teaching, the authors seek to provide intellectual clarity on many controversial questions. The contributors are lawyers, philosophers, and theologians who offer rich insights into the modern crisis of social thought on equality. They examine various global assaults on human life, marriage, the family, and the natural dignity of masculinity and femininity. They seek to uphold the essential foundations of reality for the attainment of the common good. The contributors attempt to move beyond a positivist mentality in order to evaluate the first principles of the natural law in which all human law is grounded. The various chapters evaluate developments and application of theories of equality and non-discrimination in the history of Western thought; in modern European practice; in contemporary inter-American practice; in the Asian setting; in the Middle East and North Africa; and in the Catholic canon law tradition. The authors strive to restore a universally valid conception of equality and non-discrimination as understood within the Catholic tradition.

Chapter 1

Human Equality and Non-discrimination in Light of Catholic Theology and Magisterial Teachings

Robert L. Fastiggi

In today’s world, there is great interest in equality and non-discrimination. Many social and political controversies revolve around the issues of equality, justice, and non-discrimination. Some of this is a reaction to the evils of slavery, racism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing displayed with graphic cruelty during the nineteenth and twentiteth centuries. New forms of discrimination have also emerged as seen in the oppression of women, children, the elderly, and the unborn. This essay hopes to provide a survey of Catholic teaching on the topics of equality and non-discrimination. Its methodology is more theological and philosophical rather than political or social. The goal is to explore the foundations and principles of Catholic doctrine on equality and non-discrimination and show how these apply to some contemporary issues.

The Scriptural Roots of Human Dignity and Equality

Testimony is given to human equality in the very first chapters of the Bible. God creates man in his image and likeness (Gen 1:26–27), and he creates man as male and female (Gen 1:27). All men and women, therefore, share a common origin and dignity because all are created in the image and likeness of God. When St. Paul speaks to the Athenians in Acts 17:26 he reminds them that, “God made from one the whole human race to dwell on the surface of the earth.”1 All human beings, therefore, share a fundamental equality because of a common origin. All human beings are also directed toward a common destiny, manifested in a common search for God. St. Paul tells the Athenians that the order of creation is designed “so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any of us” (Acts 17:27).

The incarnation is the supreme manifestation of God to the world. Christ’s death and resurrection constitute God’s plan of salvation for the entire human race. This plan includes all human beings for he “wills everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). Christ’s saving death and resurrection was not for one select group. Rather, his sacrifice was expiation “not for our sins only but for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not meant merely for certain nations or ethnic groups but for all people. This is clear from the great commission of Christ to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). It is likewise clear from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which enabled the disciples to speak in different tongues (Acts 2:4). This showed that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be shared with people of every language and culture. All human beings are equally deserving of the message of salvation.

The gospel initially spread in a Greco-Roman culture characterized by a social structure that regarded some groups as superior to other groups. The Christian faith challenged such social inequalities because in the Christian order “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). In a culture in which men tended to treat their wives as possessions, the Christian faith commanded husbands to love their wives “as their own bodies” (Eph 5:28), and to love their spouses “as Christ loved the church” (Eph 5:25).

In the church established by Christ, “there are a variety of ministries, which work for the good of the whole body.”2 The bishops in communion with the Roman Pontiff are “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1). Even though there is a hierarchy of order and authority in the church, there is nevertheless a fundamental equality among all the members. This is why Jesus told his disciples not to model themselves after the Gentile rulers who lord it over others and “make their authority over them felt” (Mark 10:42). Instead, bishops, who succeed the apostles, must become the servants of those they govern and model themselves after the Son of Man who “did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Even though Scripture does not directly challenge the ancient institution of slavery, St. Paul’s Letter to Philemon provides a strong argument against it. While in prison, Paul leads an escaped slave named Onesimus to Christ—becoming his father in the faith (Phlm 10). He sends Onesimus back to his master, Philemon, urging that he be received “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved . . . as a man and in the Lord” (Phlm 16). St. Paul further pleads to Philemon to welcome Onesimus just as he would welcome him [Paul] (Phlm 17). This brief letter of Paul shows how the Gospel of Christ affirms the equal dignity of all human beings regardless of social status. It also provides a basis for the eventual rejection of slavery.

Catholic Philosophical and Theological Foundations for Human Equality and Dignity

The Catholic Church affirms the equality of all human beings in terms of origin, dignity, and destiny. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the basis for this equality:

Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.3

The creation of all human beings in the image and likeness of God is a truth revealed in Scripture (Gen 1:26–27). Catholic philosophical reflection builds on this biblical truth by locating the image of God in the rational nature shared by all human beings. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (385–322 BC) saw the “rational principle” as the distinctive attribute of human nature.4 The early Christian philosopher, Boethius (c. AD 480–525) pointed to rationality as one of the constitutive elements of personhood, for a person is “an individual substance of a rational nature.”5 St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) accepted Boethius’ definition of a p...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Authors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Human Equality and Non-discrimination in Light of Catholic Theology and Magisterial Teachings
• Chapter 2: Sacramental Roots of Canon Law
• Chapter 3: The Principles of Equality and Non-discrimination
• Chapter 4: How to Think About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Policies and Religious Freedom
• Chapter 5: The Necessity for a Contextual Analysis for Equality and Non-Discrimination
• Chapter 6: Non-discrimination Policy in the Context of the European Union
• Chapter 7: Human Rights as Ideology
• Chapter 8: The Inter-American System
• Chapter 9: Equality and Non-discrimination
• Chapter 10: ASEAN’s Declaration of Human Rights (ADHR)
• Chapter 11: Religious Freedom and Christianity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the Context of the Papal Trip to Turkey