A Call to Moral Maturity:

1
A Call to Moral Maturity Do the Truth with Love
2
Moral Teachers, Moral Students

• Schools can best support students' moral
  development by helping teachers manage the
  stresses of their profession and by increasing
  teachers' capacity for reflection and empathy.
• -Rick Weissbourd

3
The Grammar of Catholic Schooling, Richard M.
Jacobs NCEA Monograph series

• God Beginning End of human existence
• Education is essentially a moral endeavor
• Parents primary educators of their children
• Subject of education is the student
• Teaching is an intimate communication between
  souls
• Education decisions are best made locally

4
All Teachers NDC, No. 54, B9d, P. 233

• Distinctive Catholic identity/mission of a
  Catholic school depends on efforts and examples
  of the whole faculty
• Integration of culture and faith is mediated by
  integration of faith and life in the person of
  the teacher
• In imitation of Christ, the only Teacher, message
  is revealed not just by word but by every gesture
  of their behavior

5
All Teachers NDC, No. 54B9d, P. 233 cont.

• Teachers life style and character are as
  important as professional credentials
• Daily witness to the meaning of mature faith and
  Christian living profound effect on students
  education/formation
• Daily opportunity for proclaiming and living the
  Gospel message

6
NDC - Context and MeaningChapter 2
Evangelization

• The six principle tasks of catechesis
• Knowledge of the Faith
• Participation in liturgical and sacramental life
• Moral Formation
• Learning to Pray
• Preparation and participation in faith community
• Developing a missionary spirit

7
NDC, no. 21 C, p. 65, The Catechist

• Has encountered Christ
• Has been converted by Christ
• Follows Christ
• Shares in Christs life and mission
• Possesses a living social conscience
• Well-rooted in the cultural environment

8
Brother Roger of Taize in Brother Roger of Taize
Essential Writings selected by Marcello Fidanzio

• Trust in God is not conveyed by means of
  arguments which want to persuade at all costs and
  so end up causing anxiety, and even fear. It is
  first of all in the heart, in the depths of our
  being, that a Gospel call is received.

9
Crow and WeaselBarry Lopez, Ill. Tom Pohrt

• The stories people tell have a way of taking care
  of them. Sometimes a person needs a story more
  than they need food to stay alive. That is why
  we put these stories in each others memory.
  This is how people care for themselves. Never
  forget these obligations.

10
Educators influence students' moral development

• Our ability to appreciate students' perspectives
  and to disentangle them from their own,
• Our ability to admit and learn from moral error,
• Our moral energy and idealism,
• Our generosity,
• Our ability to help students develop moral
  thinking without shying away from their own moral
  authority.

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Content and MethodChapter 6 Moral Life

• Moral catechesis
• - presents principles and practice of
• Christian morality
• - integrates moral principles into lived
• experience
• - demonstrates social consequences of
• the Gospel

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Content and MethodChapter 6 Moral Life

• Social justice imbedded in Gospel message
• Social teaching comprises a body of doctrine, a
  living tradition of thought and action,
  constituent element of Magisterium
• Individuals are responsible for social injustice
  and have obligation to work for change
• Church must form just members, teaching them to
  apply Christian moral principles to contemporary
  problems

13
Catholic Social Teaching

• Life and Dignity of the Human Person
• Human life is sacred
• Dignity of the human person is the foundation of
  a moral
• Human life is under direct attack from abortion
  and euthanasia
• Value of human life is being threatened by
  cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and the
  use of the death penalty.
• Catholic teaching also calls on us to work to
  avoid war. Nations must protect the right to life
  by finding increasingly effective ways to prevent
  conflicts and resolve them by peaceful means.
• Every person is precious, that people are more
  important than things, and that the measure of
  every institution is whether it threatens or
  enhances the life and dignity of the human
  person.

14
Catholic Social Teaching

• Call to Family, Community, and Participation
• The person is not only sacred but also social.
• How we organize our society in economics and
  politics, in law and policy directly affects
  human dignity and the capacity of individuals to
  grow in community.
• Marriage and the family are the central social
  institutions that must be supported and
  strengthened, not undermined.
• People have a right and a duty to participate in
  society, seeking together the common good and
  well-being of all, especially the poor and
  vulnerable.

15
Catholic Social Teaching

• Rights and Responsibilities
• Human dignity can be protected and a healthy
  community can be achieved only if human rights
  are protected and responsibilities are met.
• Every person has a fundamental right to life and
  a right to those things required for human
  decency.
• Corresponding duties and responsibilities--to one
  another, to our families, and to the larger
  society.
• Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
• How our most vulnerable members are faring.
• In a society marred by deepening divisions
  between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the
  story of the Last Judgment (Mt 2531-46) and
  instructs us to put the needs of the poor and
  vulnerable first.

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Catholic Social Teaching

• Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
• The economy must serve people, not the other way
  around.
• Work is more than a way to make a living it is a
  form of continuing participation in Gods
  creation.
• If the dignity of work is to be protected, then
  the basic rights of workers must be respected
• Right to productive work,
• Right to decent and fair wages,
• Right to the organization and joining of unions,
• Right to private property,
• Right to economic initiative.

17
Catholic Social Teaching

• SolidarityWe are one human family whatever our
  national, racial, ethnic, economic, and
  ideological differences.
• We are our brothers and sisters keepers,
  wherever they may be.
• Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a
  shrinking world.
• At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the
  pursuit of justice and peace. Pope Paul VI taught
  that if you want peace, work for justice.
• The Gospel calls us to be peacemakers.
• Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands
  that we promote peace in a world surrounded by
  violence and conflict.

18
Catholic Social Teaching

• Care for Gods Creation
• We show our respect for the Creator by our
  stewardship of creation.
• Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day
  slogan, it is a requirement of our faith.
• We are called to protect people and the planet,
  living our faith in relationship with all of
  Gods creation. This environmental challenge has
  fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that
  cannot be ignored.

19
Chapter 6Moral Catechesis

• Calls each person to a radical new relationship
  with Christ so that each can say with St. Paul,
  Christ lives in me.

20
Chapter 6Moral Catechesis continued

• Provides guidelines for catechesis on
• Creation
• Human dignity
• Formation in grace
• Virtues
• Moral conscience and sin
• Conversion

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VIRTUES Three TheologicalThree Warm Places

• F A I T H
• I believe that God will never abandon me.
• H O P E
• God will help me make this better. I wont give
  up.
• C H A R I T Y
• I will do unto others just as God has done for me.

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Four Cardinal VirtuesFour more warm places

• P R U D E N C E
• I see how to make the world better and I will do
  it.
• J U S T I C E
• Everyone deserves to have what they need.
• C O U R A G E
• I will walk forward even though I am afraid.
• T E M P E R A N C E
• I only need a small bit. Lets save some for the
  future.

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Chapter 6Moral Catechesis continued

• Provides guidelines for catechesis on
• Catholic Social Teaching
• Decalogue
• Beatitudes
• Communicate moral teachings in a persuasive and
  fruitful manner - NDC 42, E lists contemporary
  challenges

24
Decalogue 10 CommandmentsCatholic Catechism
for Adults

• Believe in the True God
• Reverence Gods Name
• Love the Lords Day
• Strengthen Your Family
• Promote the Culture of Life
• Marital Fidelity
• Do Not Steal Act Justly
• Tell the Truth
• Practice Purity of Heart
• Embrace Poverty of Spirit

25
Content and MethodChapter 6 Moral Life

• Ten Commandments and Beatitudes primary reference
  points for application of moral principles
• Commandments and Beatitudes are learned and
  understood by heart
• Catechesis examines Scripture, saints, spiritual
  and corporal works of mercy, theological and
  moral virtues, and seven capital sins
• NDC provides detailed guidance for teaching about
  each commandment and the Beatitudes

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CorporalWorks of Mercy

• To feed the hungry
• To give drink to the thirsty
• To clothe the naked
• To visit and ransom the captives
• To shelter the homeless
• To visit the sick
• To bury the dead

27
SpiritualWorks of Mercy

• To admonish sinners
• To instruct the ignorant
• To counsel the doubtful
• To comfort the sorrowful
• To bear wrongs patiently
• To forgive all injuries
• To pray for the living and the dead

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Seven Deadly SinsSeven Lonely Places

• PRIDE closes you into a lonely place with a white
  light like a laser so you can see only yourself
  and sits in your heart screaming, Look only at
  me.
• GREED takes you where its always empty, no
  matter how much you stuff in, and you say, I
  must have all and everything and nothing is
  enough and no one can have anything but me.
• ENVY is a foggy place like a deep dark swamp
  where what you have shrinks and fades and what
  your friend has grows big and bright so what you
  have is not enough and you want what your friend
  has. What you have becomes dim as shadows.
• ANGER scrunches your heart into a tiny lump of
  charcoal and bursts all your insides out before
  you know what happens. Then you look around
  empty and all alone.

29
Seven Deadly SinsSeven Lonely Places continued

• LUST makes you say, I will take you for my
  pleasure to make me feel good. Who cares what you
  think? Lust is a word of only one person and all
  the other people are toys and not real.
• GLUTTONY is a big wide hole that you cant fill
  up. Gluttony makes you look at the box of
  chocolate chip cookies and think, Yes, yes,
  yesthey must all go not beside me, not next to
  me, but inside me. The whole world belongs
  inside me.
• SLOTH tells you to say, Nah, I wont do it.
  Ill let someone else do it, because I dont want
  to and my foot hurts and Im real tired. And,
  Be quiet, voices that tell me to do things.
  Nothing is important. Sloth makes you think the
  world outside you isnt there.

30
In relationships with adultsChildren/youth sort
out

• what they owe others,
• what they should stand for,
• what traditions are worth keeping,
• whether to follow rules,
• how to contribute to their family, classroom,
  church and community
• In other words,
• how to be a decent/Catholic human being.

31
GDC, no. 156

• No methodology, no matter how well tested, can
  dispense with the person of the catechist in
  every phase of the catechetical process. The
  charism given to him by the Spirit, a solid
  spirituality and transparent witness of life,
  constitutes the soul of every method.

32
Misconceptions About Adults' Moral Development

• Adults' ethical qualities do not remain static at
  allthey zigzag depending on many factors (Noam,
  1995).
• Some adults become more generous and
  compassionate over time others become more
  selfish.
• Some adults become wiser, more able to distill
  important moral truths
• Others' notions of fairness become more formulaic
  or coarse. Many people lose their moral
  enthusiasms.
• Every stage of adulthood brings both new moral
  weaknesses and new moral strengths.

33
Reaching your moral potential

• King Lear does not develop compassion or a mature
  sense of justice until he nears death.
• "There is nothing noble in being superior to
  somebody else. The only real nobility is in being
  superior to your former self."
• -Civil rights leader Whitney Young

34
Teachers need opportunities to reflect on

• Why they have difficulty empathizing with
  particular students,
• Their successes and failures in cultivating
  students' moral thinking,
• The state of their own ideals/values
• Importance of Catholic Community
• Grace and Blessings
• Relationship with O-N-E God

35
Catholic SchoolsNDC, No. 54, B9, p.230

• The Catholic school forms part of the saving
  mission of the Church, especially for education
  in the faith. It is not simply an institution
  which offers academic instruction of high
  quality, but, even more important, is an
  effective vehicle of total Christian formation.

36
REAL Moral Questions

• Should I tell my teacher when I know another
  student is lying to her?
• Do I have to say yes to the girl who invited me
  over and who doesn't have friends, when I would
  rather play with another girl I like more?
• Should I speak my mind about an issue that's
  important to me, even though I may lose friends?

37
Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic
School

• From the first moment that a student sets foot in
  a Catholic school, (s)he ought to have the
  impression of entering a new environment, one
  illumined by the light of faith, and having its
  own unique characteristics. (25)

38
Love God with more than your head, whole being
(Emotions)

• ASSUMPTION We can teach students to behave
  morally by instilling in them virtues and
  standards, a clear sense of right and wrong.
• This assumption ignores the fact that emotions
  are often the horse, values and virtues the rider
  trying to hang on.
• Harvard child psychologist Jerome Kagan (1995)
  observes that violence prevention programs that
  explain to students the harmful consequences of
  violence often don't help because "children know
  violence is wrongwhat they can't control is the
  shame and destructive impulses that fuel
  violence."

39
WHY do people lie, cheat,?

• People do not usually lie, cheat, or abuse others
  because they don't value honesty and respect
  more likely, they suffer from feelings of
  inferiority, cynicism, or egocentrism that blind
  them to others' feelings.
• Research suggests that such emotions as shame,
  anger, and cynicism in particular eat away at
  caring, a sense of responsibility, and other
  important moral qualities (Gilligan, 1996 Rozin
  et al., 1999).
• When people's moral beliefs conflict with their
  immoral actions, many will change their beliefs
  to accommodate their actions, not vice versa.
  They will justify stealing, for example, because
  "society is corrupt" or because "all people are
  basically self-interested."

40
Compliance vs. Commitment

• Obligations vs. Rights/Responsibilities
• Servants vs. Friends
• Commandments vs. Love
• Requirements vs. Relationship
• Laws vs. Morals
• I did nothing illegal.
• No laws were broken.
• Secular vs. Sacred
• Catholic Anthropology All is holy!

41
MORALITY QUOTESChoose your favorite!

• "When I give food to the poor, they call me a
  saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they
  call me a communist." - Dom Helder Camara
• "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" -
  Gandhi 
• God Bless Everyone, No Exceptions!
• God wants Spiritual Fruits, Not Religious Nuts
• Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk humbly with your
  God. Micah 68
• The Death Penalty is a Hate Crime
• I support the separation of Church and Hate
• Lord, help me be the person my dog thinks I am.

42
Rules vs. Threats
43
All Aunt Hagars Children
Edward P. Jones

• he had once stolen a chicken. He had not
  started out to do it, but he was walking by Mr.
  Johnsons place and the chicken followed him down
  the road, and no matter what he did, the chicken
  would not go back home. Then God began to whisper
  to him, and those whisperings, along with his
  failing father at home, convinced him that Mr.
  Johnson could stand the loss of one chicken,

44
All Aunt Hagars Children
Edward P. Jones

• a tough thing to eat as it turned out.
• She found it endearing that he could not tell the
  difference between Gods and the why-the-heck-not
  advice of the Devil.

45
Story Problems Quiz

• If you are outside playing and you have three
  cars and one truck and Joey comes along and grabs
  two cars and the truck,
• How many times should you hit Joey?

46
1.) If you ride your bicycle two blocks east and
three blocks north and you fall off and break one
leg, whose fault is it?

• Your fault
• Bicycles fault
• Sidewalks fault
• Parents fault because they gave you the bicycle
  for your birthday last August
• 2.) Do you ever ride a bicycle again?
• 3.) What do you do while you are lying in bed and
  cant go out to play?

47
Set your alarm dont hit the snooze button
question

• If you take five minutes longer in the shower and
  four minutes longer on breakfast,
• How long will it take you to walk to school
  because you missed the bus?

48
QUESTION

• If you were a teenager and you were not doing
  well in school and you were not popular and you
  had pimples all over your face and your parents
  were getting a divorce and you thought it must be
  your fault and you felt that life was the pits,
  what would you do?

49
ANSWERSCHOICES

• Take drugs to make the pain go away
• Kill yourself
• Hate your father
• Think of another solution

50
Large-scale Ethical IssuesWharton School of
Business, 2001

• Sexual harassment,
• Bribery,
• Poor product quality,
• Pollution,
• Intentional lying/misrepresentation,
• Discrimination

51
Moral Leadership

• Morality is mainly about how we relate to and
  deal with others
• Respect is the basis of moral behavior
• Drivers or personal needs (usually unconscious)
• Need to be right,
• Need to win,
• Need to be loved,
• Need to avoid conflict,
• Need to be perfect,
• Need to be appreciated,
• Need to be successful.

52
Three absolutely critical components of RESPECT

• As teachers, we play the oppressor in Paulo
  Freires Pedagogy of the Oppressed
• Understanding one's motives, both conscious and
  unconscious.
• Being aware of one's behavior patterns and how
  they impact others.
• Controlling any impulses that adversely affect
  others (e.g., personal needs).
• Motives drive behavior.

53
PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED PAULO FREIRE CHAPTER 2

• Teacher teaches and students are taught
• Teacher knows everything and students know
  nothing
• Teacher thinks and students are thought about
• Teacher talks and students listen -- meekly
• Teacher disciplines and students are disciplined
  
• Teacher chooses and enforces his/her choice, and
  students comply
• Teacher acts and students have the illusion of
  acting through the action of the teacher
• Teacher chooses the program content, and students
  (who were not consulted) adapt to it
• Teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with
  his/her own professional authority, which (s)he
  sets in opposition to the freedom of the
  students
• Teacher is the Subject of the learning process,
  while the pupils are mere objects.

54
Moral GroundWhats your foundation?
55
Proportion of young people who thought the
following would be committing a crime (Combined
minor and serious crime)
Ages12-14 15-17 18-20 21-24
Copy a CD from a friend who paid for it 27 35 33 38
Copying a DVD/videotape from friend who paid for it 39 44 40 41
Downloading free music from an unauthorized file-sharing server 79 81 70 79
Downloading free movies from an unauthorized file-sharing server 83 83 74 79
Buying a bootlegged CD 82 84 76 76
Buying a bootlegged DVD/videotape 83 84 80 77
Shoplifting an item worth less than 20 97 97 98 96
Shoplifting an item worth more than 20 99 99 99 97

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BEHAVIORA Barometer of Modern Morals
57
Moral TheologyAlphonsian Academy - Rome

• Methodology
• Authentically interpretating
• Research techniques
• Sacred Scripture
• Patristics and History
• Systematic moral theology
• Fundamental Concepts
• Key Themes
• Anthropology
• Moral life of the human person

58
Glass pitcher and rocksStephen Covey

• Fill with 5 rocks (Size of fist)
• Is it full?
• Pours in gravel
• Is it full?
• Pours in sand
• Is it full?
• Pours in water
• It is full!

59
Moral Compass

• North Love the Lord your God with all your
  heart and with all your soul and with all your
  mind and your neighbor as yourself.
• Appalachia
• South Judge nobody
• Jean Valjean Les Miserables
• East Share everything you have
• Frank Daily Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• West Forgive everybody, everything
• Evansville, Illinois October, 2006 - Amish

60
More Questions/Dilemmas

• If you had seven dates with one girl and fell in
  love and asked her to marry you and she said no
  and you felt like a complete zero
• If your husband, who was really a very good man,
  had ten habits that drove you absolutely crazy
  and was forty pounds overweight and spent half
  his time on things that were important to him but
  not to you

61
Still more questions/dilemmas

• If you had three children and one of them was
  born with a birth defect that added to your
  sorrows because it subtracted from her
  possibilities and divided your attention and
  multiplied the problems of caring for your
  family?
• If you knew that your boss at work was cheating
  forty-five people in seven states in twelve
  different ways, and if you said anything there
  would be ninety percent chance you would lose
  the best job youd ever had?

62
QuestionsQuestionsQuestions

• If you woke up fourteen mornings in a row
  wondering if it were worth it to get out of bed
  because you felt like youd been giving one
  hundred percent to two dozen people and getting
  only thirty percent in return and you felt
  yourself going down and down and down and your
  brothers house went up in flames and your wifes
  mother was in a terrible accident and your
  daughter wanted to marry a jerk and the pollution
  thickened and the ozone thinned?

63
FINAL Question

• If your body had three heart attacks and one
  missing kidney and you got weaker and weaker
  until you could hardly breathe, how much would
  you have loved and who would remember you after
  you were gone?
• BONUS Question
• How much do you love?

64
William Blake

• Unless the eye catch fire,
• the God will not be seen.
• Unless the ear catch fire,
• the God will not be heard.
• Unless the tongue catch fire,
• the God will not be named.
• Unless the heart catch fire,
• the God will not be loved.
• Unless the mind catch fire,
• the God will not be known.

65
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

• Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves,
  the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God
  the energies of love, and then, for the second
  time in the history of the world (hu)man will
  have discovered fire.

66
One Minute WisdomAnthony De Mello, S.J.

• You can will to put food in your mouth
• but you cannot will an appetite.
• You can will to lie in bed
• but you cannot will sleep.
• You can will to pay someone a compliment
• but you cannot will admiration.

67
One Minute Wisdom continuedAnthony De Mello,
S.J.

• You can will to tell a secret
• but you cannot will trust.
• You can will an act of service
• but you cannot will love.
• Faith is a gift from God
• It is not your gift to give.