Our students are the reason we exist. The issue, as I see it, is one of accountability. It is no secret at all that the credibility of American colleges and universities has been called into question in recent years, sometimes with good reason. Ex Corde Ecclesiae , its general norms and the attempt to create particular norms for its implementation in the United States represent an effort by the Church to bolster the credibility of its Catholic institutions of higher learning by creating structures of accountability. Despite the criticisms voiced in the press and the academy, the Catholic identity, mission, character and purpose of these colleges and universities are the very things that mark them out as different from the rest.
Catholic institutions offer the student a choice.
To be influenced by identity, mission, character and purpose and to be accountable for same does not prevent our institutions from governing themselves appropriately. They are inherently free to pursue the truth as it is revealed through both science and faith. That is a clear benefit for the student. Freedom, however, does not exist without limitation in any human society, including the academic community. That is an important fact of life and an important lesson for the students we serve.