Human beings share the dignity that everything in creation shares. But the dignity of the person is qualitatively different and much higher. Created in God's image and likeness, each person shares in God's power to think, love, create, and choose. The more a person develops these powers, the more human a person becomes, the more that person participates in God's life. Hope in the presence of evil.
Moral evil arises from a free choice to misuse creation.
The knowledge of nuclear physics or of economics is a good. The misuse of nuclear devices or of economic manipulation is an evil. Hope arises from the confidence that the desire for a more just world, which lies at the center of each human being, is also the desire of a faithful, loving God. The Jesuit stress on quality education, values, and theology is not accidental. It comes from the vision of the Exercises .