Ave Maria, FL

This is really fascinating. First off, let me serve up the relevant websites. You can find many articles on the web or you can visit the official web site but I recommend this article. It's almost a year old, but it's the most in depth article I've come across and it's where I draw most of my information.

Now, on to a summary and my thoughts.

Thomas Monaghan, founder and former owner of Domino's Pizza is a devout and very conservative Catholic, and has spent hundreds of millions of his own dollars advancing that philosophy. His latest endeavor is the the town and university of Ave Maria to be built on 5,000 privately held acres in Florida. Ave Maria University is the first major Catholic University to be built in about 40 years and the surrounding town will be a planned community built on Catholic values. According to speeches given by Mr. Monaghan, contraceptives will not be available in Ave Maria, along with pornography and the cable networks will not carry adult programming. Small chapels will be within walking distance of every home. A large cathedral will be the town's centerpiece and mass will be said every hour, seven days a week, starting at six AM. Homeowners will own their land outright, but all commercial real estate will owned by Mr. Monaghan and Barron Collier Companies, a large development company, and will be leased to business owners. This way Mr. Monaghan can include clauses in the lease like "thou shalt not sell rubbers."

There is some discussion among the planners about how "Catholic" Ave Maria will be. When asked about it, a spokesman for Barron Collier Companies said, "It's an ongoing debate between our company and Tom." And the Reverend Joseph Fessio, SJ, the ranking priest at Ave Maria University is a little more low key as well.

This idea is fascinating to me, and it raises a huge number of questions. The administration of Ave Maria will be an interesting mixture of private enterprise, government and religion. It goes without saying that litigation is inevitable. Already, the ACLU is raising objections, but, if I may, that also goes without saying.

I don't think the legale obstacles are as great as some make them out to be. Because it is all private land, Monaghan is free to require busisnessmen to eschew contraceptives and porn; there aresimilarr zoning laws restricting access to a wide variety of productss and services in nearly every city in the nation. As for abortions, women may have a constitutional right to seek one, but I do not believe anyone has a constitutional obligation to provide one. The leaders of Ave Maria would not be able have a religious requirement for prospective business or home owners, so a Jewish family could buy a home there if they wanted to, though there will certainly be a tremendous amount of self-selection. Also, Ave Maria could not require residents to attend mass, nor could they criminalize the practice of a person's religion of choice. The only issue, off hand, that I think may prove troublesome is if, say, a Baptist or the LDS Church wanted to buy land to build a church of their own. Mr. Monaghan, at least, would not want other denominations in Ave Maria, but I don't think they could deny them the right to build their church.

However, just because something is legal doesn't mean it's a good idea. This town, for most intents and purposes, will have a "Catholics Only" sign at the gate, and I'm not sure this is what the Church wants or needs. Also, because a church is being built and priests are involved, it has the implicit approval of the Vatican; priestly assignments and authority flows from the Vatican, through the Church hierarchy to the individual priest. Indeed, the Vatican may yet interceded; it is my understanding that parishes must get annual permission to have more than one mass on Sunday, and, regardless of how many masses they are allowed, an individual priest may not say more than three masses each day, which makes it difficult to hold 12 or more masses each day, especially when you consider the shortage of Catholic priests. I'm also not certain that a withdrawal (of sorts) from the world is the best route for salvaging a lost spirituality or combating what evils you perceive rampant in the land.

A question my sister raised: There is a constant debate on weather or not teaching children about contraceptives contributes to teenage promiscuity and pregnancy; it will be interesting so see (if everything goes well) what Ave Maria's teen pregnancy rate is in a few years.

The first homes in Ave Maria will for sale sometime next year, and AMU's enrollment (they're currently operating out of a temporary location in Naples) is approaching 400. Developers predict a population of twenty to thirty thousand in ten years or so and say they've had more than 8,000 inquiries on their web site and that AMU is already developing a reputation as a high-quality institution.

Whatever happens, this will be an interesting experiment and I will be following it closely. I invite you to post any thoughts you might have.

How is it

that hasbrowns are a breakfast food, but tater tots, which are exactly hasbrowns but with a different morphology, are not?

So, I showed my sister

Yatta, both the original and the Irrational Exuberance version (neiter of which makes much sense but this translation of the lyrics takes the edge off) and all she had to say was "Monstera deliciosa! Thoes aren't fig leaves! They're split-leaf philodendrons, they are!" She went on to explain that they really aren't philodendrons.