Max Bonilla, the Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Franciscan University of Steubenville has written an outstanding paper explaining how a truly faithful Catholic educational institution should go about choosing suitable individuals to honor.

Someone should print this out and send it to Notre Dame. A teaser:

The secular view of academic freedom often leads to the welcoming of controversial speakers, theater productions, and activists from outside, as well as allowing and nurturing on the inside a professoriate with divergent and opposing views. Additionally, samesex marriage proponents, reproductive rights activists, the availability of pornography on campus, and people or activities that are at odds with Church teaching, may find a welcome sign at universities precisely because those views imply choices, and thus freedom for the students’ intellectual development. The university, the argument goes, must not be a bubble that keeps the student from the maturity that he or she must attain by exploring the possibilities the world offers.

The Catholic university’s response, however, must be careful not about denying entrance to many voices, as those are indeed necessary for a proper and mature formation of the student, but about how those voices are presented and understood within the context of the freedom that seeks excellence. Dialogue, even animated and controversial is not, in and of itself, a problem within Catholic academia. On the contrary, debates are often enormously helpful in framing questions and finding solutions. At Franciscan University, for example, we not only allow, but also have actively invited controversial and dissenting speakers to present and engage in debate. What ought to mark a drastic difference in the approach Catholic universities take is that they ought to make it clear that our position is one that seeks to promote the common good, the dignity of the person,  and ultimately the salvation of souls, and not simply the free flow of information.

There's just too much good material to quote, so Franciscan has been kind enough to allow us to make the entire 7 page article available to you. Click here to download it.

Read it. This is how a Catholic university should approach these matters.