Saint Joseph’s Theology Blog: A Work of Missionary Discipleship Integrity: An Uncommon Good in Service of the Common Good

Faith, Excellence, Integrity, Community, Respect, Compassion, Justice Our core values are “rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ and in the heritage of the Sisters of Mercy.”

Faith, Excellence, Integrity, Community, Respect, Compassion, Justice Value: a principle or quality intrinsically worthy or desirable.

Faith, Excellence, Integrity, Community, Respect, Compassion, Justice They are to form the “value- centered environment” in which “the intellectual, spiritual, and social growth” of our students takes place.

Assumption #1 The meaning given to the core values flows from being “rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the doctrine and heritage of the Catholic Church.”

Assumption #2 Jesus taught the kingdom of God, both as future = “Your kingdom come,” and as present = “The Kingdom of God is among you”. He taught that the future and the present were closely connected.

Assumption #3 However, the College is not a church, a religious community, a retreat house, or a family.

Assumption #4 The College is a legally incorporated institution of higher education and higher learning committed to core values rooted in the teaching of Jesus Christ!

Assumption #5 Therefore, our core values are the values of an institution subject to local, state, and federal rules and regulations, as well as NEASC and other accrediting agencies. The situation is complex. The language of the values is simple.

Question #1 Are these values descriptions or prescriptions?

Question #2 Are these the values of individuals, or of an institution made of individuals?

Question #3-4 How ideal? How real is the expectation that these values be implemented?

Half Empty! Half Full!

Question #5 May the practice of one value, whether individual or institutional, interfere with the practice of another value?

Balance

Question #6 Are we mixing two different orders of human valuing by using terms that may refer to either individual or institutional behavior?

Moral Man and Immoral Society: Reinhold Niebuhr “A sharp distinction must be drawn between the moral and social behavior of individuals and of social groups, national, racial, and economic; this distinction justifies and necessitates political policies which a purely individualistic ethic must find embarrassing.” p. xi

Assumption #6 The core values are both individual and institutional, present and future, descriptive, but primarily prescriptive.

Assumption #7 Each core value must initially be seen as prescriptivally individual: each one of us is called personally to put them in practice.

Emphasis #1 This is more a task to be performed than an achievement to be praised.

Emphasis #2 Each core value at the personal and individual level is at the service of the educational mission of the College.

Integrity “Concerned for the common good as individuals and as community, we commit ourselves to honesty in all relations with students, faculty, staff, and administration. Through our integrity, we maintain the trust of the surrounding community and of public and governmental agencies.”

Integrity Integrity is the link core value between academic excellence and community.

Integrity Integrity implies trustworthiness and incorruptibility to a degree that one is incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility, or pledge!

Integrity WOW! OH, MY GOSH!

Integrity In the clarity of our innermost thoughts, it should be clear how hard this ideal is to put into practice. It has a present toehold, but largely lies in the future. Thank God, God is forgiving!

Integrity There should be a close connection between integrity and humility.

Integrity An Uncommon Good in Service of the Common Good!

Conclusion “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” ---1 CO 15:58