(RNS) — Many people, and not only Catholics, are talking about the new Vatican document, “Dignitas Infinita,” or Infinite Dignity, which tackles complicated moral ideas, many of them further complicated by current political debates.  But many commentaries misunderstand what the Vatican presented, or tried to present, in keeping with the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Catholic teachings, and the complexity of the document belies its intent. Here is the back story: In 2019 — on the Ides of March, as it happens — the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decided to write on the dignity of the person. Or, as the doctrinal office explained back then, it had decided on drafting: a text highlighting the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology and illustrating the significance and beneficial implication of the concept in the social, political, and economic realms — while also taking into account the latest developments on the subject in academic and the ambivalent ways in which the concept is understood today. Not exactly an …