Religion & Law

So, my outsider's impressions of the goings-on at Marquette, described by Russell in this post, lead me to agree with him that the process by which Prof. O'Brien was "offered the Deanship of Arts and Sciences at Marquette, only to have the University attempt to rescind the contract", was flawed.  Russell writes:

The only justification so far for the University's change of position is that her work in gender and sexuality is inconsistent with the mission of the institution.  This came as a shock to many of my colleagues here, who have considered her an important contributor to University mission, although her positions challenge some current Catholic teaching.  Marquette's administration presumably reviewed her scholarship, so this should have been no surprise.  Clearly, something happened after the selection process had been completed, most likely originating outside the University's administration.  It has raised serious concerns about process and academic freedom at Marquette and has implications for Catholic universities in general.

I'd like to hear more from Russell about the ways in which the Marquette process failed.  That is, where did the process break down?  Russell notes that "Marquette's administration presumably reviewed her scholarship", before offering the position.  Was the failure, then, in offering her the position notwithstanding the nature and content of her work?  Or was it in rescinding an offer that, perhaps, should not have been made in the first place?  The press is reporting that Marquette's decision was based not simply on "her work in gender and sexuality" but on the fact (according to these reports) that she is "openly gay."  Was this, in fact, the reason?  (I don't know.)  If so, does / should that matter?  And -- again, conceding that the process appears to have been bungled -- how, exactly, is "academic freedom" implicated by a decision by a Catholic university not to hire, as a leader of that university, someone whose is (that university believes) inconsistent with, or even hostile to, the Church's teachings?