Pope John Paul II, Freedom, And Constitutional Law‪.‬

INTRODUCTION This is an important conference in the history of the law school. (1) The thought of Pope John Paul II was extremely important in the formation of the Ave Maria School of Law. Dean Bernard Dobranski and other law school leaders were involved in the discussions of Ex Corde Ecclesiae (2) and the nature of Catholic higher education that took place throughout the 1990s. (3) Pope John Paul II's encyclicals in the 1990s, particularly Centesimus Annus, (4) Veritatis Splendor, (5) Evangelium Vitae, (6) and Fides et Ratio, (7) influenced the thinking of those involved in these efforts. (8) Many of the ideas developed at that time came to fruition in the founding documents of Ave Maria School of Law. (9)