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People Count - We matter, each one of us individually and all of us together.
There are two ways to understand the title on this page. The first might be about our training in basic arithmetic. The other is a common way of saying that people are more important than material goods, and certainly more important than anything that they do or could do. As people, we are more valuable than any form of wealth or power. From the perspective of being loved into being by the direct intention of God, we are, each one, made capable of loving God and all God’s people by our free choice.
This kind of message, in much better language, is what Pope Leo keeps saying in his speeches and talks, and in his recent written work, called “Magnificent Humanity.” He refers often to our inherent dignity as humans, and to “the common good” of all people as the main concern of human society, from the smallest unit of family to individual nations and to all of us who share this one home, earth. For anyone interested in a truthful exposition of our value as people, denied and contradicted by many and varied organizations, Pope Leo’s Encyclical is very much worth reading.
For now, we might realize that our innate belief that “people count” is very important, for we can look around and see what happens wherever some people ignore this truth and treat others of less value than themselves, or only useful for their own purposes, or even of having no worth at all. The pain so many of us experience daily in seeing the way some of our fellow humans are treated gives witness to the source of such wrongness, the denial of the intrinsic goodness of all people.
We do not need anyone’s permission to believe and to share, by word and by deed, that everyone “counts.” no one is or can be without worth, even if they behave as terribly as we know that some do. This does not mean that we ignore hurtful behavior, whether blatantly deliberate or arising from unrecognized moral injuries they have received. Rather, in acknowledging their offences and at the same time their innate capacity for goodness, we pray for them and help them if we can, to be healed of those destructive tendencies that destroy their humanity as they cause injury to others.
One of our responsibilities as humans who are of incalculable worth is to let this truth affect how we speak to and about others, and about how and when we act in accord with our belief. Since in some situations and regarding some specific people this might be almost impossible for us to sincerely desire, we can do no better than to spend some quiet time in the presence of God, making ourselves available for receiving the grace of living the truth more fully that people count.
Last Updated 6/20/2026