Pope Leo XIV: Respect for human dignity ‘excludes self-centered isolation’

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV at his Wednesday general audience urged people to take responsibility for the dignity of each human person and to embrace an identity centered on gift of self.

“This dignity is entrusted to the responsibility of each person: at the same time, it also demands solidarity and mutual care, overcoming the many falsifications and manipulations that still disfigure our perception of it and hinder its realization,” the pontiff said on Sept. 9 .

Addressing pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, the pope continued his catechetical cycle dedicated to the Second Vatican Council’s constitution Gaudium et Spes , whose first chapter addresses the dignity of the human person.

In particular, the Church’s magisterial document underscores that human dignity is the foundation and condition for “those values which are most highly prized today,” while warning that these must not lose sight of their “divine source,” in order to avoid possible distortions arising from the “taint in man’s human heart.”

The pontiff noted that “the path ahead is not yet complete and must address the contradictions, both old and new, which prevent its full realization.”

He also recalled that…