From His Beatitude Sviatoslav: The fact is, we need to distinguish between absolute human rights, which protect one’s dignity, and imaginary ones projected by modern ideologies
Today, we observe how different ideologies deny the right to life of a person in Ukraine. “Russkiy Mir” ideology, which justifies the denial of the right to existence of an entire people and has a genocidal dimension, is among them. We can also observe how Ukraine hastily ratified the Istanbul Convention, which denies or does not fully adhere to the principles of natural law and is a kind of legal sabotage against our constitutional law and the national tradition of development and improvement of state legislation.
The Father and Head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, drew attention to this, reflecting on fundamental human rights, in his daily morning address on Tuesday, August 16.
Pondering over absolute and “artificial” human rights, the Patriarch recalled the reflections on this topic of Pope John Paul II in the encyclical Hundredth Year (Centesimus Annus). “The first and most important is the right to life, which includes the right of a child to develop in the mother’s womb from the moment of conception; the right to live in a whole family — to have a father and mother, a child’s personality development in a favorable moral atmosphere of love; the right to develop reason and freedom, seeking and knowing the truth; the right to develop the mind and freedom, seeking and knowing the truth; the right to work; the right to have a share of earthly goods; the right to work for yourself and your family. The right to freely create a family, have and raise children, take responsibility for one’s sexual life. Another fundamental component is the right to religious freedom, which means the right to live according to the truth of faith as well as the vocation to eternal life. It is the source and synthesis of all other rights.”
The Archbishop emphasized that fundamental human rights come from the so-called natural law, that is, from the human being as such, all that their nature requires.
“Unfortunately, — the Primate noted — in the modern world, in addition to these fundamental human rights, imaginary, artificially created ones. They come from modern ideologies and have nothing to do with the concept of natural law, and sometimes even deny the existence of human nature. After all, natural law recognizes any form of abortion or euthanasia as illegal, as it denies the fundamental human right to life.”
“The fact is, we need to learn to distinguish between the fundamental rights of a person, which protect his dignity, and imaginary, false ones, which are projected onto a person by modern ideologies,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav believes.
The UGCC Department for Information
