The roots of human rights should be sought in the dignity that is innate in every human being. Since they belong originally and intrinsically to the human person, these rights are therefore natural, inalienable and universal and the political order – national and international – has the task of recognizing, respecting, protecting and promoting them. Cultures based on the needs of efficiency, materialism, and a utilitarian and hedonistic individualism jeopardize the entire corpus of human rights. On the basis of these cultures, which no longer have the point of reference of an integral view of man, the juridical protection itself of rights is fundamentally placed in question or emptied of any content. In dedicating herself to the cause of man and proclaiming the inviolability of human rights, especially those of the poorest people, the Church attests that human dignity cannot be destroyed, whatever the condition of poverty, contempt, disadvantage and disease to which a man may be reduced. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church indicates the reciprocity between rights and duties in the person and in relations with others and the Church’s particular defence of the rights and duties of the family based on matrimony between a man and a woman. Conscious that her essentially religious mission includes the defence and promotion of the fundamental rights of man, the Church cannot fail to appreciate the zeal with which human rights are being promoted everywhere in our own time. She hopes for their ever-greater increase. (From the Address of Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, at the 40th Social Week in Spain)
