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 #1This 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