A shared understanding of being human can move us away from us-versus-them divisions, Jim Thorp, St. Michael Catholic Church in St. Michael communications manager, said. 

“In case you haven’t noticed, election season is in full swing,” Thorp said in the church bulletin. “Pollsters, pundits and politicians are slicing and dicing the American people to predict what is likely to happen on Election Day and afterward. Republicans versus Democrats, LIberals versus Conservatives. We are counted and calculated by culture, color and creed – to what end?”

There is however a great deal of misunderstanding and confusion about that it means to be human, which, if is not clear at the beginning, will lead to false conclusions. 

“We need a clear understanding of what we are and why we are before we can clearly conceive of our happiness and how to achieve it,”  Thorp wrote in the bulletin. 

While this may seem simple, we live in a society where the idea of being human is something that is actually debated. 

“In the name of freedom, we refuse to impose any specific view on meaning of human life. As a result, we fail to attribute any specific value to it,” Thorp wrote in the bulletin. “The Catholic Church has no such qualms. The Church teaches that each of us is uniquely made in the image of God, out of love, and that our purpose is to serve God and neighbor in this life in order to spend eternity with God in the next.”

The perspective of the Catholic Church informs the Catholic view of society, Thorp wrote, and we are called to affirm the reality that human life has an intrinsic value. 

We may never justify any dismissal of the human life, no matter the details of a person’s identity. 

“A society rooted in reality will recognize the God-given value of every human life and support his or her sanctification. As Christians we must lead by example in this regard, affirming the inherent value and dignity even of our so-called enemies,” Thorp said, the bulletin reported.