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The Southern Cross, Page 8
Faith Alive!
Thursday, November 2, 2000
The human faces of human rights
By Father Herbert Weber
Catholic News Service
s
ometimes God hits me with
more than one eye-opener at a time.
The following four interactions hap
pened within a week of each other.
They all help to transform human
rights from an abstract notion into
something concrete.
Donny and Danielle invited me to
visit them and their
newborn baby, Hope.
The child had not been
expected to survive to
full term in the womb.
When she was born,
indeed there were seri
ous problems. None
theless, the tiny girl
fought to stay alive.
When I visited I
held the child, who was
light as a feather. A
tiny tube inserted
through her nose pro
vided nourishment be
cause she had become
too exhausted each
time she had tried to
eat. Regardless of her
various impairments,
her parents were as
proud as any parents. I
knew I was holding one
of God’s special chil
dren. The child was
loved and of tremen
dous worth.
A day later I made
my weekly visit to
Ohio’s death row, lo
cated two miles from
my church. Only five
prisoners are allowed
to attend our Mass
each week. The others
I visit cell-to-cell.
Kneeling on the floor
so I could talk through
the food-tray slot, I prayed with a pris
oner named Tom and shared Com
munion with him.
Afterward, out of the blue, Tom
handed me six unused, stamped enve
lopes and asked me to give them to the
poor. As I looked at them, I asked
what his gesture was about. He re
sponded that he receives $18 per
month. His gift was the only way he
could think of to tithe his income! He
added, “I have to live my faith as
seriously as everyone else lives
theirs.”
Later that day I returned to the
church and stopped at the free lunch
program in the basement. I noticed a
volunteer cleaning the tables. She
gently approached a young mother
with two children. In a grandmoth
erly way, with absolutely no prejudice
or judgment, she asked if she could
get anything more for the young
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woman or her children. Then she
went back to get a cup of punch for the
little girl.
Upon returning, the older woman
sat down and visited with the client,
much as any two women anywhere
would do over the kitchen table.
■ ■ ■
Each of these episodes reminded me
of the core of any discussion on human
rights, namely, the innate dignity of
the human person. Whether the pic
World Day of Peace message that “the
dignity of the human person is a tran
scendent value.”
Just as that dignity cannot be for
feited through crime, so too it is not
lost in the pain of poverty or hunger.
The woman working in the free lunch
program knew that the mother and
children had a right to be treated with
dignity and respect.
The way the term “human rights”
often is used is rather nebulous. Its
CNS photo, left, by Bill Wittman; right, from Cleo Freelance Photography
hether the picture is of a... child or of a criminal..., one cannot
deny the personal worth of each human being — not related to
one’s... productivity or achievements.”
ture is of a vulnerable newborn child
or of a criminal sentenced for execu
tion, one cannot deny the personal
worth of each human being — worth
not related to one’s accomplishments,
productivity or achievements.
Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1998
FOODFORTHOUGHT
meaning becomes clear, however,
when human faces can be applied to it.
Each of the three cases I’ve described
provided me with the necessary faces.
■ ■ ■
One more episode took place the
same week as the other three. It be
gan with a phone call. The voice on
the phone was that of a longtime
friend from El Salvador. Miguel asked
me to visit him in a nearby city. He
had just come back to the United
States with his wife and teen-age
daughter.
After driving an hour the following
Sunday evening, I found the little
place where Miguel and Victoria were
living with their daughter and several
other Salvadorans. Then, over a
simple meal, they told
me how they recently
had entered the
United States with
out any papers. It had
been a long and dan
gerous ordeal, they
explained. In fact,
they had been sepa
rated for several days
before they found
each other again.
Miguel felt that he
and his wife had to
come to the United
States because they
simply could not pro
vide for themselves
and their family, in
cluding four more
children still in El
Salvador, their home
land. They were
among the margin
alized in a country
where a small num
ber of power brokers
control land and
wealth.
Human rights,
summed up in the
unique value of the
human person, in
clude the right to a
livelihood, employ
ment and self-fulfill
ment, just as they in
clude the right to life,
religious practice and
economic security. I know that
Miguel’s fondest dream is to help his
children have a life in a land where
they will be able to provide for their
children.
I suppose there are plenty of other
faces that could help us understand
the significance of human rights,
faces that would help to explain the
serious nature of the church’s call to
respect those rights. For me, however,
these four faces are sufficient.
(Father Weber is pastor of St.
Peter’s Parish in Mansfield, Ohio.)
What are the human rights? Name any two.
Actually, Pope John Paul II named eight human rights in a message for the 1999 World Day of Peace. Moreover,
he said, they are linked:
“All human rights are in fact closely connected, being the expression of different dimensions of a single subject,
the human person.”
In his list, the pope spoke of the right to life; the right to religious freedom; the right to participate in one’s
community; the right of ethnic groups and national minorities to exist; the right to self-fulfillment, including the
right to education and the right to employment; economic and social rights in the context of the common good; the
right to a healthy environment; and, the right to peace.
Pope John Paul said that “no human right is safe if we fail to commit ourselves to safeguarding all of them. ” And
he called for the promotion of what he termed “a culture of human rights. ”
The pope cautioned that “when the violation of any fundamental human right is accepted without reaction, all
other rights are placed at risk.”
David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!
37