The Cornerstone of Civilization

In his book, Bradley J. Birzer quotes Pope Saint John Paul II--I dare call him John Paul the Great--on the inalienable dignity of the human person:

For the Christian humanist, the Incarnation proves the intrinsic worth of each human person, despite the fallenness that each human person has inherited because of Adam's sin. Thus, persons are never to be used as means to a "higher" end. Rather, each life possesses a unique dignity. As Pope John Paul II has explained, "the concept of the person as the unique and unrepeatable center of freedom and responsibility, whose inalienable dignity must be recognized ..., has proven to be the cornerstone of any genuinely human civilization. [Birzer,JRR Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2009)134]

Saint Pope John Paul II is eminently qualified to make this statement. For he faced the two giant tyrannical ideologues of the 20th century, both of which put their particular ideologies before the intrinsic value and unique dignity of each and every human person: National Socialism and Communism, and he defeated them.