05-13-2011, 06:08 PM
Back in 1967, Catholic universities in the US issued what they refer to as their "declaration of indepence" on the matter of academic freedom. It's an approach that helped them become some of the more outstanding institutions of higher learning in the world.
Here's part of it, but can read the whole thing here:
http://archives.nd.edu/episodes/visitors/lol/idea.htm
STATEMENT ON THE NATURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
1. The Catholic University: A True University with Distinctive Characteristics
The Catholic University today must be a university in the full modern sense of the word, with a strong commitment to and concern for academic excellence. To perform its teaching and research functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself. To say this is simply to assert that institutional autonomy and academic freedom are essential conditions of life and growth and indeed of survival for Catholic universities as for all universities.
The Catholic university participates in the total university life of our time, has the same functions as all other true universities and, in general, offers the same services to society. The Catholic university adds to the basic idea of a modern university distinctive characteristics which round out and fulfill that idea. Distinctively, then, the Catholic university must be an institution, a community of learners or a community of scholars, in which Catholicism is perceptibly present and effectively operative.
Here's part of it, but can read the whole thing here:
http://archives.nd.edu/episodes/visitors/lol/idea.htm
STATEMENT ON THE NATURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
1. The Catholic University: A True University with Distinctive Characteristics
The Catholic University today must be a university in the full modern sense of the word, with a strong commitment to and concern for academic excellence. To perform its teaching and research functions effectively the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself. To say this is simply to assert that institutional autonomy and academic freedom are essential conditions of life and growth and indeed of survival for Catholic universities as for all universities.
The Catholic university participates in the total university life of our time, has the same functions as all other true universities and, in general, offers the same services to society. The Catholic university adds to the basic idea of a modern university distinctive characteristics which round out and fulfill that idea. Distinctively, then, the Catholic university must be an institution, a community of learners or a community of scholars, in which Catholicism is perceptibly present and effectively operative.