What about social and existential dignity? I’m not sure I would agree with attaching the adjective “social” to the description, but I would agree it is an essential part of what the Church is discussing here.
8. There are still two other possible aspects of dignity to consider: social and existential. When we speak of social dignity, we refer to the quality of a person’s living conditions. For example, in cases of extreme poverty, where individuals do not even have what is minimally necessary to live according to their ontological dignity, it is said that those poor people are living in an “undignified” manner. This expression does not imply a judgment on those individuals but highlights how the situation in which they are forced to live contradicts their inalienable dignity.
It doesn’t imply, but we do know that many wit-challenged people automatically assign blame on people for their own poverty. That is its own offense against human dignity. We have another assessment clouded by judgmental people:
The last meaning is that of existential dignity, which is the type of dignity implied in the ever-increasing discussion about a “dignified” life and one that is “not dignified.” For instance, while some people may appear to lack nothing essential for life, for various reasons, they may still struggle to live with peace, joy, and hope. In other situations, the presence of serious illnesses, violent family environments, pathological addictions, and other hardships may drive people to experience their life conditions as “undignified” vis-à-vis their perception of that ontological dignity that can never be obscured. These distinctions remind us of the inalienable value of the ontological dignity that is rooted in the very being of the human person in all circumstances.
I think the DDDF grasping at something here. These are all aspects of offenses against human dignity. Some of them are products of injustice in society at large. Others are personal struggles with health, economics, and other human factors that are usually out of a person’s conscious control. Sometimes they are beyond anyone’s ability to influence immediately. And sometimes they are the result of direct violence against another person, physical or otherwise.
Click this link to read the DDDF document on the Vatican site.
Catholic Sensibility 