Bishops: Human dignity is God-given, not granted by the State

Comments come ahead of meeting with Taoiseach as European Council President

Two of Ireland’s most prominent bishops have insisted that human dignity is not something conferred by governments, constitutions or public opinion — but a gift from God that precedes and outlasts any human decision to recognise it.

The bishops made the comments ahead of a meeting of leaders of European Catholic and Protestant Churches with An Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Government buildings this week to discuss the programme of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.  Archbishop Dermot Farrell, and Archbishops Eamon Martin and Kieran O’Reilly will attend.

Bishop Kevin Doran, preaching in Belfast ahead of the Rally for Life, told worshippers plainly: “Human dignity is not given to us by the State, or by our parents. Neither the State, nor our parents, nor anybody else can take it away. It is inalienable.”

He said that Catholics need a “new mindset” that prioritises the truth and can speak respectfully about human life to try to renew society and change its mindset so that it sees pregnancy as “a gift from God and a privilege,” not a burden.

In Dublin, Archbishop Dermot Farrell struck the same note at a vigil Mass for the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence. Quoting Pope Leo XIV, he described human dignity as “a gift that precedes and transcends each person, endowed by God as an expression of his unfailing love.” Archbishop Farrell went further, naming the threat directly: “the basic human right to life itself is today eroded and undermined by a seeping culture of death reflected in the normalisation of abortion and assisted suicide, as well as the embracing by nations of a power paradigm that seeks to dominate through the dynamic of war and fear.”

Both bishops echoed the Declaration’s claim that all are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” among them life itself — tracing it straight back to Genesis and the creation of humanity in the image of God.

The clear message from the Irish bishops is that dignity belongs to every human being simply because they exist, and no state gets to decide otherwise whether its abortion or asylum.

The Irish and European bishops meeting the Taoiseach and his European Presidency team this week get a chance to reaffirm this message in their meeting, to a Taoiseach who only weeks ago voted for the removal of the three-day wait for abortion in Ireland. There is an opportunity to say this loud and clear in the first weeks of Ireland’s Presidency and send a message to the rest of Europe that people of faith will continue to speak up for a European culture of life over a culture of death and violence.