Editorial: Special Issue on the Impact of Business Ethics on Public Life

Excerpt

“The Impact of Business Ethics on Public Life” was the theme of the 21st Annual International Vincentian Conference Promoting Business Ethics organized by DePaul University (Chicago, IL), Niagara University (Niagara, NY), and St. John’s University (New York, NY), the three American universities sponsored by the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentian Community of Catholic religious priests and brothers). Vincentian universities draw their mission from the life of Saint Vincent DePaul, a seventeenth-century saint of the Roman Catholic Church. DePaul spent his life seeking solutions to resolve the economic hardship that faced his country of France during his time. It seems appropriate that a Vincentian conference should speak about business ethics, for during DePaul’s life he sought religiously to make ensure financial integrity and fiscal sustainability. DePaul interacted as comfortably with the abandoned poor as he was with the royalty and the rich. For DePaul, it was all about education and making the connections. In one sense, even then, as small as DePaul’s world was, he was pushing the boundary, exploring the frontier, and creating systems for all people to flourish in this “new world.” …