Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 56 - Part V.

YOUCAT Question n. 56 - Part V. Does man have a special place in creation?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Yes. Man is the summit of creation, because God created him in his image (Gen 1:27).      

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 380 "Father,… you formed man in your own likeness and set him over the whole world to serve you, his creator, and to rule over all creatures" (Roman Missal, EP IV 118). 380

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) The creation of man is clearly distinguished from the creation of other living things. Man is a person, which means that through his understanding and will he can decide for or against love.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 360) Because of its common origin the human race forms a unity; for "from one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth" (Acts 17:26; cf. Tob 8:6): O wondrous vision, which makes us contemplate the human race in the unity of its origin in God… in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a material body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its mission in the world; in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits all men, by right of nature, may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity of its supernatural end: God himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of the means for attaining this end;… in the unity of the redemption wrought by Christ for all (Pius XII, encyclical, Summi Pontificatus 3; cf. NA 1).    

(The next question is: How should man treat animals and other fellow creatures?)