A Catholic Christian anthropology holds that humans are relational beings, ‘people in a community’. The metaphor of God as Trinity describes the nature of God as relational and communal, a ‘Being-for-the other’. Individualism is only one dimension of the human story.
A Catholic anthropology holds firmly to the essential dignity of women and men created in the image of God Jesus fulfils the belief of human beings as fashioned in God’s likeness: ‘and the word became flesh and lived among us’ (John 1:14). Jesus shows what it means to be a human being. His mission was to teach and live ways of realising our potential of being human. ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly!’ (John 10:10)
A celebration of life, with all its ebbs and flows, affirms the goodness of our humanity. Through the Incarnation, Christians believe God has reached out to humanity in a definitive way through Jesus and by the power of the Spirit. Belief in our being created in God’s image and likeness implies a universal mandate to respect everyone and to foster justice.