Catholic, Islamic and Jewish religious traditions all teach that God imbued all human beings with innate dignity, a dignity that is intrinsic to their creation and can never be taken away, according to short presentations from scholars of the three traditions.
Because of that dignity, the rights of all people to not only live but to flourish must be respected and protected, the scholars said.
The group spoke Dec. 4, 2025, at an event that was part panel discussion and part prayer service at the Tepeyac Pastoral Center of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines. It was intended for people taking classes there as part of the University of St. Mary of the Lake’s School of Parish Leadership and Evangelization, including those in diaconal formation.
Melanie Barrett, professor of moral theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, started by explaining that Catholics believe that all people are created in “imago dei,” in the image and likeness of God.
“For the Roman Catholic Church, its moral judgments regarding how human beings ought to behave toward one another, both in public spheres, such as politics or economics, and private spheres, such as sexual behaviors and health treatments, all coalesce around a single principle: namely, human dignity,” Barrett said. “According to the principle of huma dignity, all human beings, whether young or old, strong or frail, healthy or sick, intellectually, robust, or mentally challenged, are unique, irreplaceable, and possess an incomprehensible value. This value stems from the fact that they are created in the very image of our God. This image shines forth, especially in the human capacities to think rationally, to choose freely and to enter into union with God.”
That understanding is deepened by the “revelatory fact” that God the Son took on human nature “to suffer and die, offer sacrificial love for the salvation of all human beings. Accordingly, both of the human soul and its rational nature and the human body united to the soul are valuable and deserve to be treated with the uttermost respect. Furthermore, human dignity provides the basis for human rights.”
Professor Bernie Newman, a “gabbai” or deacon at Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville and instructor at Benedictine University in Lisle, quoted the Torah – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible -- in explaining that people were created in the image of God.
“Genesis tells us, ‘God said, let us make humans in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. God created humans in God's own image, in the image of God.’”
A fifth-century midrash, or interpretation or commentary on Jewish Scripture, explains the practical effect of all humans being in the image of God, Newman said.
The ancient sages of Judaism teach that “one should not say, ‘since I am scorned, I should scorn my fellow as well. And since I have been cursed, I swear I will curse my fellow as well. Rather, if you act like that, realize who it is that you are actually willing to have humiliated. for in the image of God, God created humans. By humiliating your fellow, you are actually humiliating God.’”
That dignity is intact no matter who a person is, what they do or what is done to them, he said.
“Dignity is a special feature of human beings that is implanted by God and is integral to human nature,” Newman said. “And when Judaism speaks of the fundamental value of human dignity, we refer to all humans, whether Jewish or not Jewish, neighbor or outsider, homeborn, or immigrant. In fact, the holy commandment to respect, protect and love the stranger occurs over three dozen separate times in the Torah itself. We are to empathize with the stranger.”
Syed Rizwam, assistant professor of Islam and interreligious studies and director of Catholic-Muslim Studies at Catholic Theological Union, began by quoting from the 17th surah of the Quran, which says, “We have honored the children of Adam.”
“It does not say we have honored Muslims, nor does it say we have honored believers, rather that God speaks the universal words ‘all children of Adam,’” said Rizwam, who noted he was not speaking for all Islamic schools of thought or theology. “In in other words, dignity precedes religious affiliation. It precedes belief, tribe, borders, and belonging. Dignity is not granted by a state, it is not earned from moral achievement. This means that all of humanity, regardless of race, religion, gender, social class, or legal status, stand on a shared moral ground of intrinsic worth.”
That means, he said, that to violate another person’s human rights – to disrespect their dignity – is to transgress against God.
“To act unjustly is to transgress against something God has honored,” Rizwam said. “Lawfulness is only legitimate to the extent that it safeguards humanity. When law becomes a tool of degradation, of exclusion, of collective punishment, it ceases to be just, no matter how lawfully it is codified.”
Rita George Tvrtković, dean of the School of Parish Leadership and Evangelization, then offered a brief introduction to interfaith prayer, based on the “Assisi model” introduced by St. John Paul II when he invited leaders of different religions to pray for peace in Assisi, Italy, in 1986.
In that model, people of different religions are “together in prayer” rather than “praying together,” she explained; they are together in place and time and in the intention of their prayers, while respecting the “particularities” of each tradition.
Newman read a prayer written by Rabbi David Friedenreich, which said in part, “Did not one God create us all? Tou have bestowed your dignity upon flesh and blood. It is well known and obvious in your sight that whoever can protest against wrongdoing in this world and does not protest is held accountable for what happens in the world.”
Rizwam prayed, “God Almighty, you say that God, your Lord has not forsaken me, nor does your Lord hate you, and the future will be better than the past. We ask you, Lord Almighty, to remind us that you have not forsaken us by bringing us a better future sooner than later, a future in which we live in peace, harmony, and justice, that is representative of your peace, harmony and justice.”
Father Eseqiuel Sanchez, who closed the program, said there was nothing to say after the other two prayers but “Amen.”
He added that not only the dignity but the pain of all people is the same.
“There's no difference in the pain, whether someone is Muslim or Jewish, Polish or Mexican or Salvadoran. Grief hurts. Pain is pain. We have so many different ways to speak to God.”
God, he said, does not differentiate in responding, but speaks to all people in their hearts.