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The Imago Dei and Human Dignity

Every man and woman is made in the image and likeness of God.  The term Imago Dei[1] denotes image and likeness of God.  The scriptures teach us that in the creation of humankind God stated, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”[2]  God made “man” in his image and likeness, because of this there is a certain dignity of the human person.  John XXIII stated, in his Encyclical Pacem et Terris, “Any human society, if it is to be well-ordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation this principle, namely, that every human being is a person, that is, his nature is endowed with intelligence and free will. Indeed, precisely because he is a person he has rights and obligations flowing directly and simultaneously from his very nature.”[3]  We must recognize the dignity of the human person.  This dignity is part of who a person is, in the fact that he is a human person.   John Paul II stated, in Centesimus Annus, “Human persons are willed by God; they are imprinted with God's image. Their dignity does not come from the work they do, but from the persons they are.”[4]