“In comparison with all the other living beings that populate the earth
man has an unmistakable originality. He is presented as the one unique
being, endowed with intelligence and free will, as well as consisting
of material reality. He lives simultaneously and inseparably in both
the spiritual and the corporal dimension. God loves us deeply, totally
and without making distinctions. He calls us to friendship with him,
he makes us part of a reality beyond every imagination and every
thought and word: his divine life itself (...)
the human being is capable of understanding and of wanting, conscious
of himself and free, unrepeatable and irreplaceable, the summit of all
earthly realities, and who demands to be recognized as a value in
himself and deserves always to be accepted with respect and love. He is
entitled not to be treated as an object to be possessed or a thing to
be manipulated at will, and not to be exploited as a means for the
benefit of others and their interests”.

-Pope Benedict XVI