The Butterfly Circus Sparknotes

“The Butterfly Circus,” by Joshua Weigel is a short film about a limbless man with a circus crew fighting against what society thinks of him. Within Catholic Social Teaching, there is a set of moral principles that provide a foundation for making social policy decisions. The eight principles are Human Dignity, Community, Common Good, Participation, Subsidiarity, Preferential Option for the Poor, Stewardship, and Solidarity. There are many examples of Catholic Social Teaching being applied in this film. In the first part of the film “The Butterfly Circus”, we can see Human Dignity being disrespected, then restored. While travelling, the Butterfly Circus decide to stop by a carnival. In a sideshow, a limbless man named Will gets treated and disrespected very badly from the audience. Kids were throwing tomatoes at him but he couldn’t do anything back. Mr. Mendez, the leader of the Butterfly Circus steps in and stops the kids from throwing another tomato, and with respect, he whispers the words “you are magnificent” to Will. We can see Human Dignity here because while people treated Will with disrespect and maybe even hate, Mr. Mendez didn’t …show more content…
Community teaches that we develop socially to fulfill ourselves only in relationship ship others. The crew of the Butterfly Circus are very welcoming to Will, and they care about him as much as they care about their whole crew (more like a family). Common Good is shown when Mr. Mendez purposefully decides not to help Will cross the small river. He wanted Will to work to live, and fulfill himself in the community (the crew) with one another, and look to fulfill not only himself, but to work to build a society that benefits all people. The outcome, of this is shown when Will performs his performance, and him succeeding in it gives the crew happiness, and hope to a disabled boy who watched Will’s