VATICAN - Benedict XVI tells Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences: “Human rights, therefore, are ultimately rooted in a participation of God, who has created each human person with intelligence and freedom. If this solid ethical and political basis is ignored, human rights remain fragile since they are deprived of their sound foundation.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “The natural law is The natural law is a universal guide recognizable to everyone, on the basis of which all people can reciprocally understand and love each other. Human rights, therefore, are ultimately rooted in a participation of God, who has created each human person with intelligence and freedom. If this solid ethical and political basis is ignored, human rights remain fragile since they are deprived of their sound foundation. The Church’s action in promoting human rights is therefore supported by rational reflection, in such a way that these rights can be presented to all people of good will, independently of any religious affiliation they may have.” This is what the Holy Father Benedict XVI told participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, whom he received in an audience on May 4.
After having highlighted the academy's decision in their Plenary Assembly to return to “the central question of the dignity of the human person and human rights,” the Holy Father continued: “The Church has always affirmed that fundamental rights, above and beyond the different ways in which they are formulated and the different degrees of importance they may have in various cultural contexts, are to be upheld and accorded universal recognition because they are inherent in the very nature of man, who is created in the image and likeness of God. If all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, then they share a common nature that binds them together and calls for universal respect.”
Making reference to the main epochs in the history of man, marked by a growing awareness of human rights as such and their universal nature, Benedict XVI observed that “human rights became the reference point of a shared universal ethos – at least at the level of aspiration – for most of humankind. These rights have been ratified by almost every State in the world. The Second Vatican Council, in the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, as well as my predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II, forcefully referred to the right to life and the right to freedom of conscience and religion as being at the center of those rights that spring from human nature itself.”
Although strictly speaking, they are not “truths of faith,” human rights “receive further confirmation from faith,” the Pope pointed out. He continued, saying: “Yet it stands to reason that, living and acting in the physical world as spiritual beings, men and women ascertain the pervading presence of a logos which enables them to distinguish not only between true and false, but also good and evil, better and worse, and justice and injustice. This ability to discern – this radical agency – renders every person capable of grasping the 'natural law,' which is nothing other than a participation in the eternal law.” The Pope then recalled that in his Encyclicals, he has observed that “human reason must undergo constant purification by faith, insofar as it is always in danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by disordered passions and sin; and, on the other hand, insofar as human rights need to be re-appropriated by every generation and by each individual, and insofar as human freedom – which proceeds by a succession of free choices – is always fragile, the human person needs the unconditional hope and love that can only be found in God and that lead to participation in the justice and generosity of God towards others.”
This perspective draws attention to some of the most critical social problems of recent decades and the growing awareness “of a flagrant contrast between the equal attribution of rights and the unequal access to the means of attaining those rights.” Benedict XVI lastly spoke of the “shameful tragedy” that one-fifth of humanity still goes hungry, calling on international leaders to collaborate, “respecting the natural law and promoting solidarity and subsidiarity with the weakest regions and peoples of the planet as the most effective strategy for eliminating social inequalities between countries and societies and for increasing global security.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 5/5/2009)