Magnificent Humanity – Letter from Our Executive Director

Dear Members, Partners, and Friends, 

During the Pan-African Catholic Congress in Côte d’Ivoire last summer, I attended a panel discussion on human rights. One of the presenters, a young doctoral candidate, made an astute observation: for all the admirable work being done to promote human rights across the continent, abuses ranging from violence to discrimination to exploitation persisted. His argument? That true peace arises not merely from an intellectual education in basic human rights, but a genuine understanding and embrace of universal human dignity.  

A year later, as my own country of origin and residence, the United States, approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, I cannot help but revisit this young man’s perspective. Like most US Americans, I can, since grade school, recite the rights outlined in our nation’s founding document from memory: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights, the Declaration asserts, are God-given, arising from the understanding that all people are created equal. 

And yet today, in the United States as elsewhere, systems of oppression and indifference severely impede for so many the inalienable right to live, and to do so freely and abundantly. War, poverty, economic exploitation, racism and xenophobia, lack of due process, unchecked technological “advancement” at the expense of the environment and the human person…Each of these and more undermine not only the rights upon which our own nation was founded but the very mission of Jesus. “A mission,” as Pope Leo writes in his Message for the 100th World Mission Day, “born of love, lived in love, and leading to love.” 

The promotion of human dignity, in word and deed, is central to the proclamation of God’s saving love in Christ Jesus. In Magnifica Humanitas, the Holy Father’s recent testament to the dignity of the human person, Pope Leo reminds us that “the proclamation of the Gospel cannot overlook the concrete lives of people” (no. 3) and “authentic evangelization” will always “affect the structures of human society.” (no. 30) As Christians, our vision of human dignity is rooted in our very understanding of God as love, in whose image and likeness we are each created. To love as God does—without conditions or limitations—is to fulfill our truest nature and seek the Living Christ where Jesus himself tells us to look: in our neighbor, the stranger, the suffering, the discarded and even our would-be enemies. 

In essence, the steadfast affirmation of human dignity serves to reclaim an Incarnational and sacramental vision of humanity and creation. “We proclaim,” Pope Leo explains in Magfnifica Humanitas, “a hope rooted in the One who came down from heaven to ‘create a new story here below.’ For this reason, those who believe are committed to ensuring that a greater justice will take the place of inequality, and that the industry of war will be replaced by the craft of peace.” (240) For Leo, this “new story” is written not as a polemic or condemnation, but through synodality and accompaniment. The Church, he tells us, “stands alongside the world without overpowering it, so that the promise of justice and peace that the Holy Spirit continues to sustain in the heart of humanity may come to fruition in every human endeavor.” (no. 20) 

This is the work of mission today: to stand alongside the world, that the new story of hope in Christ might take hold. 

In mission and solidarity, 

Kevin Foy
Executive Director 

Other Encounter Updates from June 2026:

Annual Meeting – Details and Registration
English/Spanish Language Learning Platform
Resources for Delivering Effective Mission Appeals
Ebola Outbreak Informational Webinar
Staff Smarter with Ignatian Volunteer Corps
Catholic Employment Opportunities
World Mission News