You Bear God's Image: The Unchangeable Dignity of Those with Mental Illness
A Declaration of Unchangeable Worth
“Whoever suffers mental illness always bears God’s image and likeness, and has an inalienable right to be considered a person and treated as such.” — St. Pope John Paul II, November 30, 1996
These words, spoken by Pope John Paul II at an international conference on mental illness, contain a revolutionary truth that our world desperately needs to hear: mental illness cannot erase, diminish, or compromise your fundamental dignity as a human person created in the image of God.
Not sometimes. Not conditionally. Always.
The Context: A Pope Who Understood Suffering
Pope John Paul II spoke these words at a 1996 conference titled “In the Image and Likeness of God: Always? Illness of the Human Mind.” The question mark in that title is significant—it acknowledges the doubt, the fear, the wondering that people with mental illness often experience: Am I still fully human? Does God still see His image in me?
John Paul II’s answer was unequivocal: Yes. Always. Without exception.
This wasn’t abstract theology for him. John Paul II was a man intimately acquainted with suffering. He survived Nazi occupation, watched friends die, experienced an assassination attempt, and endured Parkinson’s disease that progressively robbed him of physical abilities. He understood what it meant when the body or mind doesn’t work as it should. And he insisted: suffering—including mental illness—does not diminish human dignity.
What It Means to Bear God’s Image
The Hebrew Scriptures begin with a radical claim:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness’… So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” — Genesis 1:26-27
The Latin phrase Imago Dei—“Image of God”—describes something fundamental about what it means to be human. But what does it mean?
Not About What We Can Do
For centuries, theologians have debated what specifically makes humans bear God’s image. Many have pointed to our rational faculties—reason, intellect, will, creativity. These are indeed reflections of God’s nature.
But here’s the crucial insight that Pope John Paul II emphasized: bearing God’s image is not contingent on the successful exercise of these faculties.
You don’t bear God’s image because you can think clearly, make good decisions, control your emotions, or function “normally.” You bear God’s image simply because you exist as a human person.
It’s About Who We Are
The Catechism teaches: “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone” (CCC 357).
You are not a thing whose value fluctuates based on productivity, mental clarity, emotional stability, or social functioning. You are a someone—a person with inherent, unchangeable, God-given worth.
Mental illness may affect:
- How your brain processes information
- How you experience emotions
- How you relate to others
- How you function in daily life
- How you perceive reality
But mental illness cannot affect:
- Your fundamental identity as a person
- God’s image stamped on your soul
- Your infinite dignity
- Your right to be treated with respect
- God’s love for you
When Mental Illness Makes You Question Your Worth
The Lies Depression Tells
Depression is a liar. It whispers:
- “You’re worthless”
- “You’re a burden”
- “Everyone would be better off without you”
- “You’re fundamentally broken”
- “You’re not really a person anymore”
These are lies. They contradict the truth about who you are.
When depression tells you that you have no value, Pope John Paul II’s words stand as a rebuke: You always bear God’s image. Not when you feel better. Not when you’re productive. Not when you’re “yourself” again. Always. Right now. In the midst of the darkness.
When Anxiety Convinces You You’re Defective
Anxiety may make you feel:
- Less capable than others
- Constantly flawed and inadequate
- Like something is fundamentally wrong with you
- Embarrassed about your “weakness”
- Ashamed to need help
But the Church declares: Your struggle with anxiety doesn’t make you defective. It makes you human. And every human—including you, with your anxiety—bears the indelible mark of the Creator.
When Psychosis Distorts Your Perception
Perhaps the most profound implication of Pope John Paul II’s teaching is that even when mental illness severely impairs someone’s ability to perceive reality, reason clearly, or recognize themselves—even then, that person retains the full dignity of bearing God’s image.
Consider someone experiencing severe psychosis, or someone with advanced dementia who no longer recognizes family members, or someone in the grip of a severe mental health crisis who cannot think clearly.
The world might look at such a person and see only illness, dysfunction, loss. But the Church sees what the world cannot: the image of God, undimmed. A person who must be treated with the full dignity that personhood demands.
This is not sentimentality. This is truth.
Christ and Mental Illness
Pope John Paul II said something else profound at that 1996 conference: “Christ took all suffering on himself, even mental illness.”
When we profess that Christ became fully human—experiencing the full range of human suffering—we must include mental anguish in that suffering.
Consider Christ’s experience:
- In the Garden of Gethsemane, he experienced such severe distress that he sweated blood (Luke 22:44), a rare physical manifestation of extreme psychological stress
- He cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)—the anguish of feeling abandoned
- He wept at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:35)
- He experienced anger, frustration, sorrow, and fear
Christ sanctified the full spectrum of human emotional and psychological experience. He didn’t just tolerate it or endure it from a distance. He entered into it, lived it, and redeemed it.
The Inalienable Right to Be Treated as a Person
Pope John Paul II didn’t just make a theological statement about dignity—he made a moral claim about rights. People with mental illness have “an inalienable right not only to be considered as an image of God and therefore as a person, but also to be treated as such.”
An inalienable right means it cannot be taken away, surrendered, or forfeited. It exists whether others acknowledge it or not.
What This Means Practically
This right demands that those with mental illness receive:
Respect
- Not patronizing pity, but genuine respect
- Not infantilization, but recognition as full adults (when applicable)
- Not dismissal of their thoughts and feelings as “just the illness talking”
Autonomy
- The right to participate in treatment decisions
- The right to informed consent
- The right to have preferences honored whenever possible
Compassion
- Care that recognizes the person, not just the diagnosis
- Treatment that honors dignity even in crisis
- Support that empowers rather than controls
Inclusion
- Welcome in faith communities
- Opportunity to contribute and serve
- Full participation in the life of the Church and society
Justice
- Equal access to healthcare
- Protection from discrimination
- Fair treatment in employment and housing
What This Forbids
This teaching also forbids certain attitudes and practices:
- Reducing people to diagnoses (“He’s a schizophrenic” rather than “He’s a person with schizophrenia”)
- Assuming incompetence based on mental illness
- Forced treatment except when absolutely necessary for safety
- Stigma and discrimination in any form
- Neglect of those whose mental illness makes them vulnerable
- Viewing mental illness as less “real” than physical illness
- Spiritual explanations that shame (“You just need more faith,” “This is punishment for sin”)
Implications for Faith Communities
If people with mental illness always bear God’s image and have an inalienable right to be treated as persons, then our parishes must examine how we welcome, include, and support them.
Creating Communities of Dignity
Sunday liturgies should be spaces where:
- Mental illness is acknowledged in prayers of the faithful
- People with mental illness feel welcome, not judged
- Children learn that mental illness doesn’t diminish a person’s worth
- Homilies occasionally address mental health with compassion and truth
Parish ministries should include:
- Mental health awareness and education
- Support groups for those with mental illness and their families
- QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) training for leadership
- Clear protocols for responding to mental health crises
- Connection to Catholic mental health professionals
Our language should reflect:
- Person-first language (“person with schizophrenia” not “schizophrenic”)
- Respect for the full humanity of those who are struggling
- Hope for recovery and healing
- Integration of faith and mental health treatment
Inviting Participation and Service
One of the most important ways we honor the dignity of people with mental illness is by inviting their participation and gifts.
People with mental illness are not just recipients of ministry—they are essential members of the Body of Christ with gifts to offer:
- Lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, musicians
- Volunteers in various ministries
- Members of parish councils
- Teachers and catechists (when appropriate)
Mental illness doesn’t disqualify someone from service. It may require accommodations or careful discernment, but the baseline assumption should be inclusion, not exclusion.
A Personal Message
If You Live with Mental Illness
You may not feel dignified. Your illness may make you feel worthless, broken, or less than human. These feelings are real, but they are not true.
The truth—the objective reality that stands whether you feel it or not—is this:
- You bear God’s image. Always. Right now.
- You have infinite dignity that mental illness cannot touch.
- You are a person, not a diagnosis.
- You have an inalienable right to be treated with respect.
- Christ entered into your suffering and redeemed it.
- You belong in the Body of Christ.
- Your life has meaning and purpose.
- You are beloved by God.
These truths don’t erase your pain. They don’t magically heal your symptoms. But they provide an anchor when everything feels unstable: who you fundamentally are—a person created in God’s image—cannot be destroyed by mental illness.
If You Love Someone with Mental Illness
See them. Not just their illness. Not just their symptoms. Not just their struggles.
See the person—the full person—who bears God’s image.
When mental illness makes them unrecognizable, see who they truly are beneath the illness. When they can’t see their own worth, hold it for them. When the world treats them as less than, you be the one who treats them as the person God created them to be.
Your belief in their dignity matters. Your consistent treatment of them as a person matters. Your refusal to reduce them to their diagnosis matters.
If You Lead a Faith Community
You have a sacred responsibility to ensure that your community reflects this teaching. Not just in words, but in practice.
Ask:
- Would someone with severe mental illness feel welcome at our liturgies?
- Do we speak about mental health with the same compassion and understanding we show for physical health?
- Are we creating genuine opportunities for people with mental illness to serve and contribute?
- Would a family member in mental health crisis know they could turn to us?
- Are we inadvertently perpetuating stigma in our language or attitudes?
The way we treat those with mental illness is not a minor issue—it’s a matter of fundamental human dignity, and therefore a matter of justice.
The Unchanging Foundation
Mental illness can be terrifying because it often feels like it’s taking away who you are. It affects your thoughts, your emotions, your perceptions, your relationships—the very things that feel most essentially “you.”
But Pope John Paul II’s teaching provides an unchanging foundation: what makes you “you”—your personhood, your dignity, your bearing of God’s image—goes deeper than anything mental illness can reach.
It’s not based on:
- How you feel today
- How clearly you can think
- How well you can function
- How “normal” you appear
- How much you contribute
- How independent you are
It’s based on the immovable fact that God created you in His image, and that image cannot be erased.
A Prayer for Those Who Struggle to Believe Their Worth
Creator God, you formed me in your image and called me into being.
When mental illness tells me I’m worthless, remind me of my infinite dignity.
When I feel less than human, help me remember I am your beloved child.
When I can’t see your image in me, help others to see it and reflect it back.
When I doubt my right to be treated with respect, give me courage to claim that inalienable right.
You entered into all human suffering, including the suffering of mental illness. Be present with me now in my struggle.
Help me to know—not just intellectually, but in the depths of my being—that I bear your image. Always. Without exception. Right now.
And when I cannot feel my own worth, hold it for me until I can.
Through Christ, who dignified all human experience by living it. Amen.
Conclusion: Always
The question posed at that 1996 conference was: “In the Image and Likeness of God: Always?”
Pope John Paul II’s answer was clear: Always.
Not conditionally. Not when we’re well. Not when we’re functional. Not when we meet certain criteria.
Always.
This single word contains a universe of hope, dignity, and truth for anyone struggling with mental illness. You bear God’s image—always. You have inalienable dignity—always. You have the right to be treated as a person—always.
Mental illness is real. It’s painful. It’s challenging. It may be chronic. It may require ongoing treatment.
But it cannot—it will never—erase the image of God within you.
You are, and will always remain, a beloved child of God, created in His image, possessing infinite worth, deserving of respect and compassion.
Always.
Resources
If you’re struggling:
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - Call or text 988
- Crisis Text Line - Text HELLO to 741741
- CatholicTherapist.com - Find Catholic mental health professionals
For faith communities:
- Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers - catholicmhm.org
- Resources for creating mentally healthy parishes
- Training for pastoral care of those with mental illness
Church teaching:
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, §357, 1700-1709 (Human Dignity)
- Pope John Paul II, “In the Image and Likeness of God: Always?” (November 30, 1996)
- Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health-Care Workers
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” — St. Irenaeus
Even—especially—when that human being struggles with mental illness.