Through a majority, the agenda and vision of the party is translated into effective legislative action. Similarly, the Holy Father and the Bishops have expressed the concern that the activities of Catholic institutions of higher learning be influenced by the integrating vision of the Church. Of course, it is essential that faculty be competent and of the highest intellectual caliber. Nor is the Church is advocating that only Catholic faculty be appointed, that only Catholic students be admitted. If that mission is clear, if faculty recruitment efforts make institutional expectations known, if personnel processes are fair and consistent, if appropriate academic freedom is encouraged, if outcomes are successfully measured, agencies will accredit institutions on these bases.
Freedom is ordered to some good, in the case of academic freedom, the good is truth.
Granted, different academic disciplines have their own distinct and legitimate methodologies but if they do not lead to the truth they are neither academic nor disciplines. To me, Catholic identity makes the academy more free rather than less. CUA's theological school, at least since the Curran controversy, has already had to deal with some of these issues. The Department of Theology in CUA's School of Religious Studies is one of three academic units that have an ecclesiastical faculty governed by special ecclesiastical statutes. Faculty are aware of this fact when they are appointed and it enters into their contractual relationship with the university.