Our Holy Father is quoted as teaching the following about Human Rights:

"John Paul II lamented that human rights are being reduced to simple 'self-centered demands.' 'Over the last 40 or so years,' the Holy Father said, 'while political attention to human subjectivity has focused on individual rights, in the public domain there has been a growing reluctance to acknowledge that all men and women receive their essential and common dignity from God and with it the capacity to move towards truth and goodness.' 'Detached from this vision of the fundamental unity and purpose of the whole human family, rights are at times reduced to self-centered demands,' he said". (VATICAN CITY, JUNE 4, 2004, Zenit.org)

In defending the rights of Catholics in the Church, ARCC starts by affirming the human and divine sources of these rights. While defending the moral norms of individual conscience, we base the option to exercise of these rights in the context of both the human and Christian community wherein we work out our salvation.

The Preamble of our ARCC Charter of Rights of Catholics in the Church states:

"The rights of Catholics in the Church derive both from our basic humanity as persons and from our baptism as Christians. Membership in the human community and membership in the community of the Church, therefore, jointly confer the rights here presented which guarantee our dignity and freedom as persons and as Catholics." (http://www.arcc-catholic-rights.net)

We are inspired and encouraged by our Holy Father's statement as confirming what ARCC proclaims as the basis and purpose of the rights of all of humanity and particularly of Catholics in the Church as well as in civil society. We heed his warning about individualism, while defending the integrity of the individual's conscience.