Missionaries of the Sacred

Coordinator’s Note
Brother Warren Perrotto, MSC
JPIC Coordinator
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Haitian people at this time.

What is a culture of Life?

Hopefully, as Catholics, we are familiar with the term. Yet if someone asked us the above question, how would we answer? A culture of life is an approach to human existence that is based on the dignity of each and every human being. It calls us to identify areas in our lives and in our society where more respect for the human person is needed and to act in a way that upholds the dignity of everyone. A culture of life is fundamentally founded on Jesus Christ.

Although much progress has been made affirming human rights and human dignity we cannot remain passive. We still have much work to do. Although slavery, e.g., has been outlawed in many places throughout the world, it still appears in the forms of human trafficking and forced labor. Furthermore, often some of the “solutions” to important issues of social justice are themselves, violations of human dignity and human rights. Abortion e.g. devalues the dignity of the human person and does not solve the underlying issues of economic insecurity,  early sexual activity, unhealthy relationships, discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace, etc.

Catholics describe this tendency to solve our moral dilemmas through destructive methods as the culture of death. Abortion, euthanasia, suicide, the death penalty, economic disparity, violence, etc. are often accepted because they are the criteria of “efficiency, functionality, and usefulness.” (Evangelium Vitae (EV), 23) In this way, the culture of death justifies behavior against life. In a society where death is the modus operandi, thoughts and emotions toward death as a means to an end in personal, social, cultural religious and political arenas,  become more “logical” or “normal.” (Cf. EV, 18)

I believe the solution to overcome a culture of death is to promote a culture of life. The Pro-life movement and Catholic Social Justice both promote and foster this culture of life. Each human being is created in the image and likeness of God and endowed with human dignity and worth, from the moment of conception to natural death. To have a culture of life, we need to have respect for human dignity. A human person has no dignity if his or her life is not valued. They are inseparable.

The Mission Statement for the culture of life is Jesus Himself. In His identity as Son, His words and His actions show us that the culture of life embraces all of humanity as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of our Father. The culture of life fosters a civilization of love where all persons are united as one in Christ.

When people are used as a means to an end (i.e. in an exploitative situation) and when one’s neighbor is seen as one who only belongs to my group or nation, people are marginalized and are denied their rights and liberties as human beings. The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-35), however, demonstrates clearly that an outsider is also my neighbor. The Good Samaritan is the good neighbor. The Samaritans and Jews were enemies, but the Good Samaritan believed first in the dignity and value of all persons. It was not important that the person by the side of the road was not a member of his community. The Samaritan saw him as a fellow human being in need of healing. He approached him, cured his wounds and carried the Jew to an inn for further care and paid for his expenses while he was away. The Good Samaritan did not use the suffering one as a means to an end. Neither did he define the victim by his particular social, religious, racial or ethnic origins. Both victim and healer are equals. For the Samaritan, “the foreigner makes himself the neighbor and shows me that I have to learn to be a neighbor deep within and that I have the answer in myself. I have to become like someone in love, someone whose heart is open to being shaken up by another’s need. Then I find my neighbor or—better—then I am found by him.”¹ In a culture of life, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) The culture of life is not selective. It embraces the truth that each person is “seen as good in himself or herself.”²

Fostering a culture of life today is a pressing need and challenging task for the global community. It is the responsibility of the human community to enter into dialogue and to develop the formation of consciences. Indeed, all together we must build a new culture of life: new, because it will be able to confront and solve today’s unprecedented problems affecting human life: new because it will be adopted with deeper and more conviction by all Christians: new because it will be capable of bringing about a serious and cultural dialogue among all parties. (EV, 95)

God gives us the freedom to choose life or death. He asks us to “Choose Life.” (Cf. Deuteronomy 31:19) Jesus, God’s Son announces the Good News as a culture of life. This is so that the human community may be a community of life and for life.

1. Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, NY: Doubleday, 2007, p. 197.
2. 2. Carl Anderson, A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World. NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2008, p. 140.