Essays – Church Life Journal

David Lantigua

David Lantigua is assistant professor of moral theology at the Catholic University of America, where he regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Christian social ethics, fundamental moral theology, and comparative religions.

The "New" Evangelization in the Americas: On the Catholic Origins of Human Rights

Published by David Lantigua

The introduction of human rights language into the social mission of the Catholic Church evident in Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in terris (1963) is often seen as a delayed response to the modern world. From this perspective, Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom rode on the back of America’s centuries-old first freedom. Even the magna carta of the modern social encyclicals, Pope Leo...