In a warmly received address to Roman Catholic educators, including 200 college presidents, in April, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "profound gratitude" for the educators' "selfless contributions," which "serve both your country and the church." Pope Benedict's talk also built an intellectual case for academic freedom that is based on a bedrock of fidelity to the received doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. In reaffirming "the great value of academic freedom," which he said called those in academe "to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you," Pope Benedict did not neglect to mention qualifications to the concept based on adherence to Church teaching. The largely upbeat nature of the papal address was a relief to some observers, who thought that Pope Benedict would use the address to chide professors and administrators in Catholic higher education for perceived failures to fully embrace orthodoxy. A notable part of Pope Benedict's speech was what it did not mention: "Ex corde Ecclesiae," Pope John Paul II's "apostolic constitution" for Catholic colleges and universities, which was issued in 1990. Pope Benedict--then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger--was a prime mover in the document's call for closer ties between the university and the Catholic Church.