On the dignity of persons:

Yesterday the Vatican issued a long awaited insturction on the use of many bio-medical techonologies and also guidelines for the use of a number of different research methods, including embryonic stem cell research. I have not yet had the opportunity to read it, but I have taken a quick read through some headlines that respond to this instruction, Dignita Personae (On the dignity of persons). Largely these headlines are negative, emphasizing the prohibitions. This is a faulty way of looking at it, because it does not respond to the question that the Church's morality asks.

When we talk about morality on the Church, most people would probably say that the Church is trying to tell us what we cannot do. So the basic question of moral theology would be: What men and women are not allowed to do? These are the questions that newspapers and jounralists ask, these are not the questions that theologians and all Catholics ask. Instead we ask: What allows men and women to live a flourishing life? These are are very different questions, and so the answer to them will also be very different. So as we read the headlines and hear the news stories about this new instruction, let us also keep in mind that as Catholics we are looking for the guidepost that lead us toward a deeply-happy and flourishing life, while the newspapers and journalists are looking for ways to sell newspapers and advertistments.