Víctor Manuel Fernández, responsible for the recent Vatican declaration on human dignity
Image: Picture Alliance
The main thing is that it can be connected: What does the Roman prefect of the faith, Cardinal Fernández, hope to achieve if he wants to save the world with his new declaration “Dignitas infinita”?
EIt is not self-evident that a theological letter from the Vatican religious authority argues with human dignity. Human dignity is not a metaphysical concept, either philosophically or legally; If it is nevertheless declaratively described as inviolable, for example in the well-known formulation of the Basic Law, then its claim to respect is open to consideration, as Matthias Herdegen points out in his commentary on Article 1: “Despite the categorical claim to dignity of all people, the type and measure of dignity protection are definitely open to differentiations that take the specific circumstances into account.”
Two decades ago, Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde criticized such a procedural approach to protecting dignity as a farce of inviolability. According to his tenor, what use is the assertion of a quasi-ontological value of human dignity when this dowry of every species being has long been open to the balancing of conflicting legal claims? And, one might add, should it be used philosophically as a reference for divergent anthropological determinations?
#Vaticans #Dignitas #Infinita #declaration #human #dignity