text: Academic freedom is the lifeblood of a university, and must extend to a critical understanding of the underpinnings of church teaching. This was certainly the case at the Catholic institution where I studied as an undergraduate. In the late eighties, the American Association of University Professors stated that the CDF essentially destroyed Curran's career and, but for their actions, he would have remained a respected academic and theologian. Instead he was streamed out of tenure, removed as a dissident, and eventually declared unfit to teach theology anywhere at any time. Anyone with an olfactory gland can sniff out the overkill in such actions . . . and the fear.