To the editor,

In my last letter, I discussed how evil is working its way into every aspect of our lives, and that excluding God from the public space is the primary cause of it. I would like to explore this notion through the Catholic lens of human dignity.

Catholics believe that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. As such, they possess an intrinsic dignity that imbues them with irrevocable human rights, to include the ability to live and to worship in an environment that fosters human happiness and flourishing.  In the language of our Founding Fathers this was called “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  

Decades ago, our nation turned away from pursuing a more perfect union under God, Who is the highest good, and this created a vacuum that was filled with other things. These “lesser goods” – realized as power, prestige, and material wealth – were all pursued at the expense of human dignity and the common good. The results have been disastrous.

Given the obvious corruption and moral decay, we have reached a point in our history where we have to ask: is this really the kind of society that respects the dignity of every human being?  From a Catholic standpoint, I emphatically argue that it is not, and it is certainly not what the Founding Fathers intended for us. Without God and Christian morality to guide our nation, evil ideologies that promise social harmony, but instead deliver human misery and suffering have metastasized within our country.

For example, such ideologues claim concern for the safety of children yet simultaneously advocate for violently aborting pregnancies for any reason up to and even after birth. The same proponents also advocate for using physical force to remove children from their parents’ care because they do not respect the latter’s parental moral authority. Politicians of the same stripe previously tried to decriminalize pedophilia in several state legislatures. Meanwhile, a corrosive public education system lies and confuses children on everything from history to biology with the aim of getting them to hate themselves or others. Finally, let us not forget the federal government’s placement of tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children with known criminals, to include human smugglers and sex offenders a few short years ago. The majority of them still remain unaccounted for.

Given the limitations for submitting letters, I will continue this discourse in my next letter.  I intend to continue exposing the cultural and political hypocrisy regarding human dignity, but I will also outline how we can begin to move forward with God and Christian virtue as our guiding north star.

Until the next, stay tuned and God bless you!

Joe Guagenti

Ellsworth