論及以宗教信仰為基礎的學校希望結合宗教價值觀的辦學理念，在信仰團體與個人日常生活合而為一的中世紀基督宗教文化脈絡之年代，或許想當然爾；但在今日多元化的生活型態中，該理想對天主教高等教育之經營管理已充滿諸多挑戰。例如前教宗若望保祿二世於1990年頒布之「天主教大學憲章」（”Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” From the Heart of the Church），雖要求教會的「信仰」應是任何機構宣稱其具有天主教身分時當遵循的最高指導原則，但對不同文化脈絡的天主教高等教育則帶來不同程度之影響。由於「天主教大學憲章」彷如天主教高等教育的「指南針」，內容包括天主教大學的身分與使命、性質與目標，為教會和社會服務、與當地文化的交談，以及天主教大學的設立、與當地社會的合作等。以致於天主教高等教育目前面臨經營管理挑戰之際，不只需要考慮大學的本質與功能，更得顧及教會團體期待學校本身應該兼具宗教價值觀之辦學特色。該辦學特色除外在的規範及要求，更有隱藏於內、不明可喻的共識及默契，且相當程度均包含「信仰」價值觀之承諾，該影響有時也甚於教育主管單位的法令規章。為此，本研究乃探討以基督宗教文化之價值觀為本的「天主教大學憲章」如何影響非基督宗教文化脈絡下的台灣天主教高等教育經營管理之相關議題，箇中包含教廷頒布天主教大學憲章的時代性與其本地化之意義，以及天主教大學憲章對台灣天主教高等教育之身分認同、學術研究、課程教學與學生事務等議題的影響進行析論，並提出建議之道。

For those schools having religious faiths as their foundations, the ideal of assimilating religious values into educational philosophy might be taken for granted in the Christian culture of the medieval ages, when faith was interwoven into people's daily lives. However, in today's diversified life styles, the ideal has created many challenges to the management and operation of Catholic higher education.For example, although Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church) promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1990 requires that the church's faith be the highest guiding principle of any institution declaring a Catholic identity, the requirement's influences on Catholic higher education in different cultural contexts vary.Ex Corde Ecclesiae functions as the ”compass” of Catholic higher education and includes such contents as a Catholic university's identity, mission, character and goal, services to the church and society, dialog with the local culture, as well as the establishment of a Catholic university and its collaboration with the local society. Thus, while already facing management and operation challenges, Catholic higher education must take into consideration the church's expectation to run schools with religious values in addition to attending to the essence and functions of a university.The characteristic of religious values includes not only external regulations and requirements but also implicit consensus and tacit understanding. Furthermore, the commitment to faith values is part of the characteristic and at times influences a Catholic school more than the laws and regulations by government agencies overseeing education.Hence, this research investigates how Ex Corde Ecclesiae, based on values of the Christian culture, affects the issues of management and operation of Catholic higher education in the non-Christian cultural context of Taiwan. The issues studied include the contemporary significance and localized meaning of Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and the influences of Ex Corde Ecclesiae on identity, academic research, curriculum and instruction, and student affairs of Catholic higher education in Taiwan. Suggestions for these issues are also proposed.