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A related concern on which the Cardinal Newman Society has been outspoken is the need for full implementation and public disclosure of the mandatum, a requirement of Canon 812 and Ex corde Ecclesiae that any professor of Catholic theology must have a "mandate" from the local bishop recognizing a clear commitment to teach authentic Catholic doctrine. There is some indication that the Vatican may be interested in acting on this.

Accommodating the concerns of the ACCU and Catholic theologians, the colleges and the U.S. bishops have declined to make public disclosure of which theologians have received the mandatum, thereby rendering the mandatum useless to serious students who wish to avoid dissenting professors. But the Vatican’s Archbishop Miller told college officials in April that "such silence frustrates the purpose of this law and deprives the faithful of their right to assurance about the doctrinal soundness of a given professor."

If the Holy Father publicly endorses disclosure of mandatum recipients, he could bring about a much broader reform of Catholic theological education in Catholic colleges. It is in the theology and religious studies departments of our Catholic colleges that some of the most influential and outspoken dissenters in the U.S. are employed. Their lectures and publications sow confusion within the Church, especially when catechists and seminarians rely on modern theological scholarship for their formation. Renewed attention to this scandal would have great importance for the Church.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s reputation for successfully confronting "liberation theology" and challenging dissenting theologians is well-established, and there have been signs that the Vatican under Pope Benedict is equally concerned about defending the Faith from misrepresentation. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is reviewing the work of Georgetown University’s Father Peter Phan, whose book Being Religious Interreligiously was criticized by the U.S. bishops in December. Archbishop Miller has argued that authentic Catholic theology is central to Catholic education and that vaguely-defined "religious studies" is "not a substitute for theology"—an argument recently taken up by America’s cardinal-theologian, Avery Cardinal Dulles, in a compelling lecture at Assumption College in Massachusetts.

Dissenting faculty members outside the theology and religious studies departments also inflict significant damage to the Catholic identity of America’s Catholic colleges. Here the concern is often the dramatic decline of faithful Catholics among the faculties of Catholic colleges; consider the University of Notre Dame, where baptized Catholics are expected to become a minority within the next decade. Archbishop Miller has called for legal efforts to recruit Catholics, similar to the recruitment of racial minorities and women. It is likely that Pope Benedict shares his concerns.