Introduction
In the last decade, the pace of change has quickened at Seton Hall University — ties to an original constitutive element of the University, Immaculate Conception Seminary, have been resumed and ties to Seton Hall Preparatory School have been ended. The University is expanding its residential capacity, changing its basic character from a commuter to a residential campus. In the midst of these fundamental changes, the University has taken time to concentrate on one characteristic which must remain constant throughout these changes, Seton Hall's identity as a Catholic, diocesan university, serving a predominantly Catholic student body.

That Catholic identity was the concern of an earlier Task Force which began its work in 1978, but realized “...We know that we have not completed a task so much as we have set out on a pilgrimage through the land of faith in search of wisdom.”¹ With these words from the original Seton Hall: A Catholic University, that effort begun in 1978 has been addressed anew as Seton Hall and other Catholic colleges and universities are challenged, in Pope John Paul II's words, “…To retain a lively sense of their Catholic identity and to fulfill their specific responsibilities to the Church and to society."²

The second Task Force on Catholicity offers another report to all concerned about Seton Hall: students and staff, administrators and faculty, alumni, neighbors, friends, regents and trustees. It is our hope that this will be accepted as an open document addressed to all men and women of good will. If we have done our work well, this document will serve Seton Hall to show clearly its fundamental character as a Catholic university.

Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, inspired by the example of Elizabeth Ann Seton, and those others who helped to found and carry on this University since 1856 believed in the Christian Creed as passed on by the Catholic community through the centuries. That Creed prompted their founding of this University. We reaffirm that founding faith today as constitutive of Seton Hall University. This faith is rooted in the infinite love of the eternal Father for all people, and the manifestation of that love in Jesus Christ, and in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

These Christian beliefs, articulated by the Church and celebrated especially in the Eucharist, in no way detract from the ecumenical nature of Seton Hall. Indeed, since God seeks the salvation of all, our Christian belief impels us to enter into dialogue with all persons of good will, and to join with others in the search for truth.

Catholicism provides an enabling vision calling for all that is best and authentically human. Catholic tradition is committed to the search for truth because that search is ultimately the search for God. Seton Hall exists in a pluralistic society and plays a role in that society. In our pursuit of the fullness of what is true and good, we welcome and need at Seton Hall the help of other Christians, other believers, and other persons of good will. They must question us, instruct us, and help us to grow. We note in this regard the words of the Congress of Catholic Educators, which met in Rome in 1972:

Catholic universities can do much to promote ecumenism and the on-going dialogue with those of other religions and with (persons of no religious persuasion), both by preparing persons qualified to participate in serious inter-faith discussions, and by providing an atmosphere favorable to their success.

We recognize and cherish our institutional fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church. In our relations with ecclesiastical authority we respect the responsibility of the magisterium while affirming our own autonomy and academic freedom.³ We wish to include in our priorities a mission of service to the Catholic Church of Newark and of our neighboring dioceses, working in a frank and confident collaboration with Church authorities and others in promoting the spiritual, human, and social development of all people.

A university is Catholic in many ways: by instruction, by the creative faith and love of its members, as well as by living the Catholicity proclaimed. The Catholicity of Seton Hall is a call to action and a commitment to a building of life that is faithful to the past and open to the future. It is a constant challenge to be a witness to the Christ whom we believe has come to liberate and fulfill every person coming into the world, and it is an exploration of the consequences of that faith.

In what follows, we shall speak first of the fundamental Catholic identity and sense of purpose that is the foundation of what Seton Hall is and what it strives to be. We give particular attention in our report to a commitment to moral education, to the role of theology in the university, to the building of community, and to the importance of service. Once more, may all who read this report join us as fellow pilgrims, in search of wisdom and truth.

Fundamental Identity and Sense of Purpose
Seton Hall is, as every university is, an institutional embodiment of human critical intelligence, of the human reflective mind. Seton Hall commits itself to helping its constituents grow in their capacity to be whole persons able to form sound judgments on the great issues of human existence. Seton Hall also concerns itself with the instruction requisite to competence in a profession or career aimed at advancing the common good.

In its roots, the wisdom of our Western culture recognizes that judgment is based on spiritual, moral and psychological knowledge in addition to merely factual information. If the university is the place where knowledge is sought and shared, and where the intellectual virtues are cultivated, it is also the place for investigation of the worth of things. Seton Hall commits itself to an integral education combining the search for truth and the probing of values. As John Henry Newman argued, the true University, a Catholic university in which theology is a branch of knowledge, offers deeper, broader teaching in the disciplines other than theology, through a sense of the unity of knowledge, of history, of religion and of the moral life.

Critical judgment is especially the prerogative of free persons. Christians have never been spared vigorous disagreement and debate in their pursuit of truth. Therefore, along with our commitment to values goes our commitment to the freedom to search for knowledge and truth. This freedom is a necessary part of an institution which embodies the human mind's autonomy. Seton Hall is committed to the principles, ideals and practices of academic freedom and affirmative action. Nothing in this report is in any way meant to deny, restrict, or circumvent the rights and responsibilities of any individual which are within the framework of academic freedom, affirmative action and other civil rights.

Since this University is free and autonomous, it chooses to commit itself to a ground of values which is the enabling vision of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Teacher. As a Catholic university in community with other such universities throughout the world, Seton Hall accepts the principles set forth in the document The Catholic University in the Modern World. This document resulted from a series of meetings in several countries culminating in the Second World Congress of Catholic Educators in Rome in November 1972, which stated in part:

Since the objective of a Catholic university, precisely as Catholic, is to ensure in an institutional manner a Christian presence in the university world, confronting the great problems of contemporary society, the following are its essential characteristics:

First, a Christian inspiration not only of individuals but on the university community as such;

Second, a continuing reflection in the light of the Catholic faith upon the growing treasury of human knowledge, to which it seeks to contribute by its own research;

Third, fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church;

Fourth, an institutional commitment to the service of the people of God and of the human family in their pilgrimage to the transcendental goal which gives meaning to life.

In a supplementary document, the Task Force has listed several recommendations for 1988 whose implementation can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time. Two recommendations have been seen as so fundamental by the Regents that these recommendations--this one on personnel appointments and a second on core curriculum--have been incorporated into the basic, enduring text of the report, and established as fundamental guidelines for the University's policies and procedures.

We recommend the appointment of administrators and the recruitment of faculty who understand and honor Seton Hall University's fundamental Catholic identity. We recommend that the University support the predominance of the presence of persons within the administration and faculty who adhere to the community or tradition of the sponsoring body, provided that others are not systematically excluded. A copy of Seton Hall: A Catholic University should be given to every applicant for employment at the University.

With this clear understanding of what Seton Hall stands for, the report takes up the University's commitment to living out these values.

The Choice and Advocacy of Values
Every university is an enterprise in education and a venture into the collective history of the human family.  As the world grows more complex, and as the store of human knowledge increases exponentially, the effort to convey a sense of the whole becomes ever more difficult.  In the university, students draw on the body of human knowledge, expressed through various cultural, ethnic, and religious traditions; reflect on the trends of history; learn how to use intelligence creatively and critically; and acquire some measure of competence as educated persons. It is a sophisticated process of the cultivation of the intellect and those virtues which support it: clarity, honesty, patience, humility, perseverance, integrity.

However, even more difficult for the educational enterprise is developing the capacity in students to recognize values in human affairs. Since its founding, Seton Hall has made and continues to make, a priority of the first rank, the commitment to moral education--the guidance toward seeing and choosing true values. We offer a Judaeo-Christian perspective on the long and continuing journey of humankind. To be a Catholic university requires that the constituencies of the university bring religious traditions and values into every aspect of the life of the university so that educational tasks may be infused with faith, hope, and love. This can only be a freely accepted task, with no forced participation, and it will always be imperfectly achieved, so fragile and delicate a task it is.

No pursuit of knowledge is exempt from these efforts. The study of ethics, the quest for social and economic justice, the debates of political theories, the analyses of the economic order, the uses of the natural sciences, the conduct of business, the practice of the professions, the creativity of the arts, all are moral efforts. A university cannot provide all answers to the myriad moral situations, but no true university can avoid confronting moral questions. Indeed, life on the campus should be a crisscross of questions about the values we choose and live by.

Catholic universities play a unique and special role as bearers of and witnesses to the Judaeo-Christian moral heritage. Far from being a finished product, this moral heritage must be appropriated and lived out anew by each generation, and must be augmented and advanced by discussions and debates within the universities. As John Paul II reminded the leaders of American Catholic Colleges in his address to them in New Orleans:

"Catholic higher education is called to exercise, through the grace of God, an extraordinary 'share in the work of truth' (3 Jn 8). The Catholic university is dedicated to the service of the truth, as is every university. In its research and teaching, however, it proceeds from the vision and perspective of faith and is thus enriched in a specific way.”⁴

The contributions of Catholic universities are especially called for since the imperatives enjoined by Jesus in the Gospels--the centrality of God in human life and the dignity of the human person--are increasingly threatened by the materialism, impersonal bureaucracy, self-interest and narcissism of present day society.

During the course of discussions and debates on our campuses, many compelling questions emerge. For example: How does the American formula for a democratic republic serve the needs of developing nations? How are the needs of national security balanced with a national concern for human rights? How can one choose a lifework as a vocation if one must compete for profits? What will the changing roles of men and women mean for the health of the family? Why is a sexual relationship between a man and a woman right and proper only within marriage? What are the responsibilities of municipalities, government, and industry for environmental pollution? Does agribusiness safeguard the well-being of farm workers and consumers? All these are moral questions, all probe our values, none are simply answered. In the Catholic tradition, as mentioned above, we have not been spared vigorous debate and disagreement in the pursuit of truth nor over moral matters such as these. But the readiness to ask such questions and the willingness to take a stand on them is something we expect of every scholar at the University.

These tasks are especially urgent during times such as ours of social, spiritual, and cultural upheaval, when time-honored solutions to human problems are no longer completely adequate.⁵

In such times old values are often not compelling, nor traditions supportive. Thus we are required to persuade students of the importance of values, indicate how they may be discerned or altered, and guide them to some personal and social commitments, even if tentative.

All members of the University community participate in these tasks, but faculty members are entrusted with a particularly vital role in this work. The Chancellor and administrators must give leadership, the campus ministers and student affairs staff offer their services, but it is the faculty who must speak clearly about life's goods and their order. Unless the faculty are integrated persons, we can surely expect disintegrated graduates. It has been well said that in the matter of values, the silence of a teacher makes a sound. By saying little, we teach that moral questions are not important or are purely private.

This difficult task obliges our faculty to find ways to seek and share beliefs and values with one another and with their students. Why must learning be so open and published, while moral commitments and convictions are kept private as if either improper for public sharing or unable to support public examination? In these matters that tie reason to judgment and feelings, we have no satisfying consensus, not because we argue over them too much, but because we argue not enough.

Academic freedom is not incompatible with commitment to moral education. We freely and fully embrace the principles of both these essential elements of university life. Without academic freedom, we endanger the freedom of enquiry and expression that lies at the heart of the intellectual life of the University. And without moral education, academic freedom runs the risk of becoming a hollow and sterile formula for asserting no positions at all, or for rendering no judgments on the crucial issues of human life. We reject both extremes and strive for a healthy balance--an atmosphere in which intellectual debate and dialogue may serve to enlighten, guide, and refine our moral vision, without compromising intellectual integrity or our commitment to Judaeo-Christian values.

Finally, both the Church and society generally expect universities to play a part in confronting the great issues of human life on the local, national, and international levels. Inspired by the experience and the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the American Catholic bishops have begun and are continuing to articulate a bold and sweeping social justice agenda that is rooted in the Scriptures and which addresses the ills of our times, like racism, exploitation, abortion, illicit sexual behavior and militarism. A series of national documents have been issued by the American bishops that address many of these ills.⁶ These Pastoral Letters challenge us all to searching reflection on personal values, social ethics, and the domains of public policy. These Pastoral Letters and other Church documents can be the centerpiece of discussions and debates within the university on issues that span the spectrum of our lives as believers and citizens. All of these documents share the fundamental assumption that affirms the direct connection between the mission of the Church along with its institutions and the work of morality, justice, and peace.

There are many ways for a Catholic university to participate in this mission: researching the issues of morality, justice and peace; strengthening the teaching and learning of the tradition of Catholic moral and social thought; creating an environment that reflects a commitment to justice; probing the roots and causes of such matters as racism, consumerism, sexism, war, world hunger and discrimination; exploring the dimensions of human rights on both the personal and structural levels. Recognizing its position as a major diocesan university, Seton Hall commits itself, in its academic, spiritual, and economic resources, to these essential and challenging tasks.

Curriculum Revision
Since the institutional and curricular changes of the 1960s, many colleges and universities have become increasingly concerned about the disappearance of a coherent view of education that links the expertise of the professor with the problems men and women face as human beings. Seton Hall is attempting to redress this problem by devising more specific, rigorous, and coherent core curricula. In 1984, the College of Arts and Sciences inaugurated a new core curriculum that is required for all its students. Now, efforts are underway to devise a University-wide core curriculum which will express a common body of knowledge and a common set of values.

In the discussion of values, we noted that many students no longer come to the university with firmly held values nor with a sense of community that is shared by all generations and rooted in history. Most are not well informed about our Judaeo-Christian tradition or the essential teaching of the Catholic Church. The present culture is characterized by a dangerous privatism, and religious belief and religiously based moral values seem to play a diminished part in practical life.

Historically, university departments of Philosophy and Theology had the primary task of integrating the student's education and providing a reasoned foundation for values. For many reasons, these departments throughout the university system have been fragmented and the collegium of scholars has been diminished. Unless these trends can be checked, universities will become more and more fragmented. The problems posed for our tradition by today's world will not be confronted in an organized and continuing fashion, and ultimate questions about faith and the world will not be raised and addressed. Once again we acknowledge as guidance for our educational offering this key recommendation of the Task Force:

We recommend that the University and college undergraduate core curricula be revised to ensure that every Seton Hall student has the opportunity to learn about the intellectual traditions of Catholic Theology and Philosophy. In consultation with the Departments of Religious Studies and Philosophy, the University should require several courses in both Catholic Theology and Philosophy. We realize that this will require additional faculty resources.

Even though these ultimate questions are of particular concern to both Philosophy and Theology, every academic department should assess the ways in which these questions and topics may be integrated into its courses, programs and special events.

Christianity stands at a decisive point in its history. The locus for the Christian mission is an increasingly interdependent world, tragically divided by injustices. These injustices are not only personal, but institutionalized--built into economic, social, and political structures. The decline of religious faith together with these injustices challenges Christianity at its roots. In the midst of material affluence, many in the industrialized West are spiritually starved or hopelessly apathetic. In developing countries, many are denied the basic requirements for a decent, human life, and are victims of unrelenting violence and oppression. Spiritual malaise and widespread injustices are an affront and a challenge to Christians in their efforts to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel.

The University is called to confront these problems not by blind activism, but with professional competence blending theory and practice proper to its academic nature, and with the other resources ranging from campus ministry and support for minority students to investment policies and financial planning. Curriculum revision is one expression of Seton Hall University's commitment to address these urgent problems. Furthermore, the enhancement of community and the challenges of service to others are also essential elements of this commitment, continually reformed, but also prompted by Seton Hall's own sense of community and of service.

Community
"Community is at the heart of Christian education. From a Christian perspective, integral personal growth, even growth in grace and the spiritual life, is not possible without integral social life. To understand this is a high form of learning; to foster such understanding is a crucial task of education.”⁷

The importance of community also is reflected in the document The Catholic University in the Modern World, where it is noted:

A Catholic university pursues its objectives in two ways; it engages in academic activities . . .and at the same time it strives to form an authentic human community.. .The Catholic university community finds its unity in a vision of humanity and of the world which on the one hand flows from a common cultural heritage, and on the other, from the person and message of Christ.⁸

Community involves a four-fold connectedness: a connection to one's own self, a connection to others, our connection as a community to common problems, and, finally, a connection to the ground of our being which is the realm of the Sacred.

Such a spirit of connectedness marked by freedom, respect and charity must characterize Seton Hall. There are two requisites: that each individual join in the community and open him or her self to others, and that the members of the community show one another mutual respect. It is this respect which should govern relationships among the various members: administrators, staff, faculty and students. It will be promoted in practice by taking pains to ensure that lines of communication are open to everyone, and that everyone has an opportunity to contribute toward decisions which affect the community.

At a time when extreme individualism is a threat to the common good, and certainly to the healthy life of the body of Christ, Seton Hall must live and teach community. Its conduct of affairs must be more than lip-service to human rights and dignity, due process, compassion, the fostering of a capacity to care for and about others, a sense of camaraderie, and for those with Christian faith, an understanding of fellowship in the Holy Spirit.

What does the most to reveal God's presence is the fraternal charity of the men and women of faith who are united in spirit as they work together from the faith of the gospel and prove themselves a sign of unity. (The Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, no. 21)⁹

To live in community is to teach how to build it, how to practice it. Community stands between the impersonalism of mass society and the self-centeredness of individualism. Therefore we cannot bring people together in ways that simply intensify individualism. Perhaps in a world in which each person had a place and calling, it fulfilled the Christian responsibility to society simply to exhort persons to exercise their offices, but in a world far from orderly, marked by rapid change and drastic reshaping, by mass media and huge bureaucracies, by complexity and perplexity, to settle for privatism or individualism is to promote disorder.

To build community requires compassion for each other, coordination of leadership, painstaking development of communication and dialogue, the creative use of common facilities, and the promotion of many opportunities for formal and informal gathering, embracing every sector: administration, staff, students, faculty. All this must not be left to chance or exhortation, but must be taken into careful account in planning, and frequently reviewed. Here we call on imagination and ingenuity. We must find practical ways to celebrate the common events, feasts or holy days or holidays of the year, for every community has its shared rhythm.

All this holds true for the variety of ethnic and cultural communities as well, for community has a healthy respect for diversity. This requires those human virtues of congeniality: civility, humor, balance, trust. There is no community, after all, if its members do not work to respect religious, racial and cultural diversity.

Each person is nourished and sustained by the empowerment of symbols. Here too we call on imagination and ingenuity to promote the use of symbols that feed us as a community. In terms of worship and ritual, there are countless ways art and music and drama can promote a sacred atmosphere to elicit a deeper understanding of each group's sense of mystery.

Since the beginnings of Seton Hall, the priests on campus have been called in a particular way to be such signs of the transcendent dimension of faith. They have taken on the work of priestly ministry in the service of the people of God on campus as well as their assignments in administration and teaching. The need for such priestly ministry and service today is more pressing than ever, and its value to the community is ever more important. This commitment to service also highlights the necessary work of the priesthood of all believers, that is, ministry and service to which all men and women of faith are called.

For many Christian communities, faith is built upon the sharing of the Eucharist. For Catholics, the central expression of community is the celebration of the Eucharist which should be widely available. Equal care must be given to ensuring the excellent quality of all liturgy and common prayer.

Finally, Seton Hall has responsibilities to the communities of which it is a part. Its caring for all people who are neighbors and fellow citizens should be made visible by the services it offers, and its concern for the well-being of the various communities of faith should be manifest by its dedication to the work of all men and women of good will.

The rights and obligations of all members of the University community should be clearly stated and appropriate procedures established to deal with conflicts regarding these rights. Moreover, with all due regard for authority and for proper confidentiality, all members of the university community have the right to participate in the basic decisions affecting the governance of the University.

Service
It is imperative that a Catholic university acknowledge and express its position in a world that has become more interdependent. Where hunger, the arms race, and violations of human rights and human dignity are all too commonplace, Seton Hall must strive earnestly to bring a Christian perspective and Gospel values to these urgent and, in some ways, worsening world concerns. Since Seton Hall graduates are expected to translate their education into creating a better world, they must be offered opportunities to discover and experience that potential while they are at Seton Hall. The University community is responsible for creating the appropriate environment for meaningful service and personal commitment.

Seton Hall exercises its mandate of service to humanity first by providing high quality education, and by committing its resources to address the complex problems of Church and society; hunger, war, poverty, racism, sexism, all forms of injustice, and environmental degradation. In so doing, the University demonstrates to all its awareness that we live interdependently with brothers and sisters the world over.

In his encyclical, Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII wrote in 1963,

"We desire to call attention to the fact that scientific competence, technical capacity, and professional experience, although necessary, are not of themselves sufficient to elevate the relationships of society to an order that is genuinely human, that is to an order whose foundation is truth, whose measure and objective is justice, whose driving force is love, and whose method of attainment is freedom.”¹⁰

We at Seton Hall acknowledge our responsibility to strengthen human bonds and to do so most particularly by continuing the service that we have historically offered to the education of the poor and disadvantaged. We acknowledge and resolve to address the need to promote the dignity and advancement of the poor, of women, the elderly, and minority groups--in particular, the Black and Hispanic populations who are numerous in this region.

Within all areas of the life of a university, opportunities exist or can readily be developed for the utilization of human talent and spirit in addressing the varieties of human pain and need. Such planned programmatic activity enables students “…to live and act in their temporal lives as to create a synthesis between scientific, technical and professional elements on the one hand, and spiritual values on the other.”¹¹ These opportunities should be inspired by the conditions which exist visibly in our society and by the potential responses which likewise exist within the curriculum or student life, rather than simply required activities.

The presence of the Immaculate Conception Seminary and the Graduate School of Theology on the Seton Hall campus provides special opportunities to coordinate efforts through which the community can share in our religious and cultural heritage. The Seminary's faculty, graduate programs, its many certificates and other offerings make it an extraordinary resource for the religious development of persons and groups in the Archdiocese of Newark, as well as the other New Jersey dioceses in their service of the people of God.

Epilogue
The preceding pages are the product of serious study and self examination on the part of the members of the Second Task Force on Catholicity. As mentioned above, a series of specific recommendations for implementing the themes of this report can be found in a separate document entitled, Seton Hall: A Catholic University, 1988 Recommendations. This is intended as a living document which will challenge all who are associated with Seton Hall to express and to enhance its mission.

End Notes

1. Seton Hall: A Catholic University, p. iii
2. Pope John Paul II "Address to Leaders in Catholic Higher Education," Xavier University, New Orleans, LA, as found in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 23, 1987, p. 1, ff.
3. cf., The Catholic University in the Modern World, II, B.
4. Pope John Paul 11, "Address to Leaders in Catholic Higher Education," The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 23, 1987, Par. 4.
5. At his recent inaugural address at Princeton University, President Harold T. Shapiro stated "It is critical that the educational experience of our students infuse them with an understanding of contemporary knowledge and with a sense of where they stand in the long stream of human history. It is critical that our students comprehend the nature and promise of modern science, be at home in the world of letters, appreciate different cultures, and understand the power of the creative and performing arts. Over and above all this, however, it is also critical that our students leave our campus with an ability and a desire to engage in the moral discourse required to give greater meaning to our national life." Princeton, January 8, 1988.
6. Some of the recent Pastoral Letters of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops include one on racism, Brothers and Sisters to Us (1979); one on Hispanics, Hispanic Presence: Challenge and Commitment; one on war and peace in the nuclear age, The Challenge of Peace (1983), and one on the economy, Economic Justice for All (1985). The Conference is currently working on a document dealing with women.
7. Pastoral letter on Catholic Education. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1972, Par. 24.
8. The Catholic University in the Modern World, Par. 37.
9. Walter M. Abbott, S.J., editor. The Documents of Vatican II, New York, Guild Press, 1966, Par. 21, pg. 219.
10. Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, April 10, 1963, p. 149.
11. Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, April 10, 1963, p. 156.