His predecessor Pope St Paul VI, called for the UDHR be ratified by all Governments and for it to be fully observed by all ( Octogesima Adveniens). In his address to the United Nations in 1979, Pope St John Paul II called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) “a true milestone on the path of humanity’s moral progress”. Pope St John XXIII, in his encyclical, Pacem in Terris, recognised the necessity for each state to have a clear and precisely worded charter of fundamental human rights to be formulated and incorporated into the States’s general constitutions. The Church recognises that her essentially religious mission includes the defence and protection of human rights including within her own ranks ( Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 159). Although our inalienable and inviolable dignity as human beings was profoundly wounded by sin, it was redeemed and restored by Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection.
Human rights stem both from reason ( Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 153) and from our inherent dignity as human beings, because all human beings were given life by God and are made in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:27). The foundational principle of Catholic Social Teaching is respecting the life and dignity of the human person whatever its condition or stage of development.
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