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Dignitas Infinita highlights "the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology" and warns of "ambivalent ways in which the concept is understood today." Among those "ambivalent ways" are plural definitions of human dignity in official Catholic teaching. There is ambivalence in definitions of Catholic sexual human dignity and Catholic social human dignity, which lead to inconsistencies in the foundation and justification of moral doctrine. In this article, we first present Catholic definitions of social and sexual human dignity. Second, we explain Pope Francis's anthropological nuances that provide an alternative definition of human dignity, which we label holistic human dignity. Third, we evaluate and describe the harm deriving from statements in the document and by Pope Francis, a harm that results from inconsistent definitions of human dignity in doctrinal teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article in this journal, Thomas Finegan replies to our earlier article in this journal, which proposes a theological and ethical argument for the Catholic church to recognize same-sex civil unions as a lower-case sacrament. His critique focuses on the theological significance of embodiment as a one flesh union taught by Jesus, defended throughout Catholic tradition, and justified philosophically. We respond that Finegan's critique misrepresents our argument and is mistaken biblically, anthropologically, and sacramentally, and suffers from scotosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) teaches that same-sex parents are detrimental to the normal development of the children they parent. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) supports this teaching and provides sociological evidence to substantiate it. In this essay, we critically analyze that teaching and the USCCB's evidence. Part one explains the ethical inconsistencies in the CDF's teaching on same-sex parenting. Part two considers the relationship between theology and science. Part three investigates the 'signs of the times' and the changing demographics of families in the US. Part four presents overwhelming sociological data that demonstrates that same-sex parents promote the human development of children. Part five calls for the revision of Catholic teaching against same-sex parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay traces the development of the Christian teachings on the (im)morality of taking interest on a loan, initially called usury, and homosexual behaviour from their beginnings in the scriptures, through the tradition, down to the present day. It demonstrates the development of the teaching on usury, thanks to the interventions of the theologians, from absolutely immoral to perfectly moral; highlights the trajectory of the teaching on homosexual behaviour; and suggests that it too, again thanks to the teaching of the theologians, is moving along the same trajectory from absolutely immoral to perfectly moral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]