322. The importance of the human person

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church

Lesson 322

Ave Maria series

What is more important, society or the individual?

In God’s sight every individual matters in the first place as a person and only then as a social being. [1881, 1892]

Saint Peter’s Square fountain.  The image of God is in every human being.…..322

Society can never be more important than the individual person.  Men may never be means to a societal end.  Nevertheless, social institutions such as the State and the family are necessary for the individual; they even correspond to his nature.

”Each of us is the result of a thought of God.  Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”  Pope Benedict XVI at his inauguration

“And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’”--Matthew 25: 40

[1881, 1892]

THE COMMUNAL CHARACTER OF THE HUMAN VOCATION

1881 Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys specific rules; but "the human person . . . is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions."(Gaudium et Spes 25 § 1. )⁴–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

IN BRIEF

1892 "The human person . . . is and ought to be the principle, the subject, and the object of every social organization" (GS 25 § 1). –CCC

Church  St. Peter's Square fountain