In late March, at the first annual Boston Catholic Men's Conference held at Boston College High School, Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza who has become a major league conservative philanthropist, was feeling the spirit. He triumphantly told the enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000 men (including over 80 priests) in attendance that construction of Ave Maria University -- the first Catholic university built in 40 years -- was moving forward. According to published reports, "the $240 million first phase of the campus plans to be centered around the 'Oratory of Ave Maria,' a 60,000 square-foot church with aluminum and glass arches, and will include the nation's largest crucifix in stained glass with a 60 foot high bleeding Jesus. Officials say the church would be the largest fixed-seating Catholic church in the nation, with room for 3,333 to 3,500 worshipers.

 

Monaghan boasted that students enrolled at his new university located in southwest Florida would be high quality students with higher median SAT scores than those attending other Catholic institutions. He pledged that dormitories would be single-sex, that at least one quarter of the classes would be taught by "wholly orthodox" priests, and that students will be urged to become priests and nuns. (The university's predecessor, the Ypsilanti, Michigan-based Ave Maria College that was founded by Monaghan in 1998, is slated to close down.

 

Bigger news, however, awaited the crowd: Monaghan fervently launched into a description of a new Catholic-centered town that he is constructing alongside his university in Florida. While there no plans to name the town Monaghanville, or MonaghanWorld, it is clear that Monaghan's vision is writ large over the new town, which is to be called Ave Maria.

 

According to the Boston Phoenix's Adam Reilly (story), Monaghan regaled the crowd with his description of the town:

 

"'We've already had about 3500 people inquire on our Web site about buying a home there -- you know, they're all Catholic,' Monaghan says excitedly. 'We're going to control all the commercial real estate, so there's not going to be any pornography sold in this town. We're controlling the cable system. The pharmacies are not going to be able to sell condoms or dispense contraceptives.' A private chapel will be located within walking distance of each home. At the stunning church in the center of town, Mass will be said hourly, seven days a week, from 6 a.m. on. 'So,' Monaghan concludes, with just a hint of understatement, 'it'll be a unique town.'"

 

The Ave Maria web site describes the university and town as "a new community of uncompromising quality and boundless opportunity," but makes no overt reference to the town's religious mission. The project grew from plans Monaghan began developing in 2002, and his Ave Maria Foundation hired the Naples, Florida-based land developer, Barron Collier Companies -- which donated the land for the project -- to carry out the construction.

 

"What we are creating here is truly a unique approach to educational and land planning," said Barron Collier Companies President Paul Marinelli:

 

"Developing both academic and community features at the same time allows us to create an environment where living and learning form an integrated whole. The campus will be an intrinsic part of the town, and participating in town life will be an enriching aspect of the university experience. Town residents will also benefit from the cultural and academic resources provided by the university."

 

According to its website, construction of the infrastructure of the university/town is underway. Located "less than 30 miles from Naples and the beaches of Collier County," it "is a visionary community with a strong commitment to preserving the area's significant environmental resources as well as its rural and agricultural heritage," the website maintains.

 

The website notes that "vertical construction" will begin in the fall of 2005, and the first phase of the project will be "open" in spring, 2007. By 2016, the town and the university are expected to have about 30,000 residents.

 

And after questioning from some Collier County Commissioners about affordable housing, Ave Maria's developers said that "the town will have 1,000 moderate-income, owner-occupied housing units; 700 low-income housing units, of which half will be owner occupied; and 200 very low-income housing units," Florida's Naples Daily News reported in late June.

 

The paper reported the company's plan is to "...provide more affordable housing in the town of Immokalee, a population of 25,000 and home to many Haitian and Hispanic migrant farmworkers," which is located "about 10 miles north of the Ave Maria project."

 

If Monaghan's enterprise is successful, it will in part be due to friends in high places. Hooking up with Father Joseph Fessio appears to provide Monaghan with a direct connection to the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI. According to the Boston Phoenix, Father Fessio, SJ, who is Ave Maria's provost and top-ranking priest, has "in the last 15 years ... enjoyed a reversal of fortune so dramatic it almost seems providential. After two clashes with his Jesuit superiors, Fessio had been virtually exiled to a hospital chaplaincy in Southern California.... [which] left him free to take the Ave Maria job -- a fortuitous development for Monaghan, since Fessio wrote his dissertation under the guidance of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now known as Pope Benedict XVI."

 

Fessio enjoys a close relationship with the new Pope: "San Francisco-based Ignatius Press, which Fessio founded and still runs, is the primary English-language publisher of Ratzinger's works. When Ratzinger became pope, Time magazine listed Fessio among the new pontiff's innermost circle." Fessio told the Boston Phoenix that he publishes [Ratzinger's] books and that he "was his student."

 

"But as far as real influence," Fessio added, "there's probably hundreds of people who have more." Since Ratzinger became Pope Benedict, Reilly reported that "Fessio has become one of the primary interpreters of his nascent papacy, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, MSNBC's Scarborough Country, and PBS's NewsHour to discuss the new pope and surfacing as a source in countless newspaper stories."

 

"This" Reilly wrote, "puts Fessio in a remarkably prominent position in American Catholicism, and will surely help Monaghan as he markets Ave Maria in the coming years." During his conversation with the Boston Phoenix, Fessio weighed in on the question of politicians who support abortion:

 

"This is a very simple question, a question of integrity and consistency and identity. Look -- if you are sincerely convinced, that's fine. I won't vote for you. But please don't call yourself a Catholic in good standing. And don't behave in such a way that would give the impression that you are."

 

However, Reilly wrote, "When talk turned to the town of Ave Maria, Fessio was more diplomatic...promis[ing] that the Barron Collier Companies will have ultimate authority over the town's character. 'No matter what Tom's personal desires might be, or anybody else's, this town is going to be open to everybody,' Fessio said." When asked "what Ave Maria's legacy might be a century from now...[Fessio] was slightly less guarded," Reilly reported.

 

"'My ideal would be for the entire human race to be fully and completely Catholic, and to serve God that way,'" Fessio answered. 'But that's not going to happen. What do I want for the town? I'd hope the town would be like I'd like the whole planet to be -- fully conformed to the truth. But that's not going to happen either. So I don't know. I'll accept whatever happens.'"

 

An orthodox Catholic, Tom Monaghan has been supporting conservative Catholic enterprises for quite some time. Over the years, he has funded numerous anti-abortion organizations and backed legislation banning all abortions (see below). He has also supported the campaigns of ultra-conservative Republicans including Senators Sam Brownback, Tom Coburn, and Rick Santorum.

 

Ave Maria the city -- located in a county in Florida where George W. Bush won 65% of the vote -- is a potential sanctuary from all that he opposes, and a testing ground for all he supports.

 

Monaghan's personal story, however, is nothing less than inspiring. According to the Boston Phoenix's Adam Reilly, Monaghan's father died when he was four years old and he wound up "spend[ing] much of his childhood in foster homes and a Catholic orphanage. He entered the seminary in ninth grade -- moved, Monaghan says, by a desire to 'seek the salvation of souls' -- but was soon kicked out for unruly behavior. A few years later, he finished last in his high-school class, graduating only after he tearfully begged a teacher to intercede on his behalf."

 

He later dropped out of the University of Michigan and enlisted in the Armed Forces, "accidentally," Reilly reports, joining the Marines.

 

In 1960, along with his brother James, he bought Dominick's Pizza -- which later became Domino's Pizza when Tom became its sole owner -- for a pittance. Over the years, Domino's evolved into an international pizza delivery franchise and fast-food restaurant, which, according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, "had 7,100 stores in 50 countries [and] it was the second-largest pizza chain in the United States when it went public in 2004." Its 2003 sales totaled over $4 billion. (In 1998, Monaghan sold his interests in Domino's to Bain Capital, Inc., for an estimated $1 billion.)

 

In 1983, during his pizza-selling days, Monaghan bought the franchise of Major League baseball's Detroit Tigers, which he later sold for a handsome profit in 1992 to Mike Ilitch of Little Caesar's Pizza.

How does an orthodox Catholic smooze with the likes of Sam Brownback, Tom Coburn, and Rick Santorum. Maybe Im mistaken, but didnt that event in the early 16th century cause a seriou big breakup?

 

Regardless, I suppose they can build a wall if they want. Just like anyone else.

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Jonestown II: This Time It's Catholic

And the bible belt has officially expanded south into the state of Florida :plain.

Jonestown II: This Time It's Catholic

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There was also a report on ABC News a few weeks back about a group that plans to do something similar in South Carolina. They believe that George Bush is too liberal.

 

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