What are the Catholic Church's beliefs about human life?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerThat God created everything from nothing, including human life. (2 Macc 7:22-23, 28); that he destined all material creatures for the good of the human race (CCC 353), that the Catholic Church is the universal sacrament of salvation (CCC 776), and that our end (the reason for which we were created) is in God. He is the beginning of and the end of everything.

Answer 2

Because God is the Creator, a certain stamp of His image is in creation. At the least, any person can look at creation and know that a transcendent Creator exists (Rom. 1:19-20). However, God took some created things and designated them to be holy, set apart for divine worship. Even from the whole earth, God set aside one geographical place under the Old Covenant that was central to all worship, which was Jerusalem (cf. Jn. 4:20-22).

What about the New Covenant? Did this use of created things for God's glory and praise end? Some would argue that God had to use all these things prior to the Incarnation, but since Christ came such things are no longer needed. Unfortunately, such thinking is more a product of modern day forms of Gnosticism and philosophical nominalism than it is biblical or Christian.[4] Further, it is impossible as "embodied persons" that we should escape symbols and the use of things in our worship of God. The question is not sacred things versus no sacred things, but rather which sacred things will be used and what significance will we understand them to possess.

Christ can rightly be called the "icon" of the Father (cf. Jn. 1:14-18, 14:6-9). God made Himself known by actually coming among us in the flesh. This in no way precludes the use of sacred things. What the New Covenant has done is change the central place of worship, which is now heaven itself around the throne of God. No longer do we travel once a year to Jerusalem for this purpose, but wherever we participate in divine worship, we enter right into heaven itself (cf. Jn. 4:21-24).

The New Covenant itself is full of material signs: an Incarnation, water in Baptism, bread and wine, oil for anointing, and so forth. The Bible further speaks of the altar of the New Covenant (cf. Heb. 13:10). The use of material things for sacred purposes does not detract from God's glory. It is a very appropriate way to give glory to the Creator of all things, honoring Him by setting aside things to use only for worship. If I set aside a tuxedo instead of jeans for a wedding, it is not to honor the tuxedo, but to honor the occasion. Even more obvious, when a young man "sets aside" his body for his bride, his intent is not to glorify his body! Something is set aside, not as an end in itself, but to give glory to that for which it was separated

Answer 3

All life is created by God and is to be respected because of this.