Verbum Domini §101

101. I would like also to call the attention of everyone to the importance of defending and promoting the human rights of every person, based on the natural law written on the human heart, which, as such, are “universal, inviolable and inalienable”.[331] The Church expresses the hope that by the recognition of these rights human dignity will be more effectively acknowledged and universally promoted,[332] inasmuch as it is a distinctive mark imprinted by the Creator on his creatures, taken up and redeemed by Jesus Christ through his incarnation, death and resurrection. The spread of the word of God cannot fail to strengthen the recognition of, and respect for, the human rights of every person.[333]

[331] John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris (11 April 1963), 1: AAS 55 (1963), 259.

[332] John Paul II, Encyclical letter Centesimus Annus (1 May 1991), 47: AAS 83 (1991), 851-852; Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations (2 October 1979), 13: AAS 71 (1979), 1152-1153.

[333] Cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 152-159.