Find the Pope in the Pizza
Posted on 02/27/2006 9:30:35 AM PST by tman73
A FORMER marine who was raised by nuns and made a fortune selling pizza has embarked on a £230m plan to build the first town in America to be run according to strict Catholic principles.
Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.
Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria’s pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town’s cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.
The town will be centred around a 100ft tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university’s president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should “help rebuild the city of God” in a country suffering from “catastrophic cultural collapse”.
Monaghan, 68, sold his takeaway chain in 1998 for an estimated $1 billion (£573m). A devout Catholic who has ploughed millions into religious projects — including radio stations, primary schools and a Catholic law faculty in Michigan — Monaghan has bought about 5,000 acres previously used by migrant farmers.
The land on the western edge of the Everglades swamp will eventually house up to 30,000 people, with 5,000 students living on the university campus. Florida officials have declared the project a development bonanza for a depressed area, and Governor Jeb Bush attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the new university earlier this month.
Yet civil rights activists and other watchdogs concerned about the separation of church and state are threatening lawsuits if Ave Maria attempts to enforce Catholic dogma. Environmentalists have also complained the town will restrict the habitat of the Florida panther,...
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Will there be any elected officials?
I suppose it never occurred to the "civil rights activists" that they don't have to move to this place, nor does anyone who doesn't agree with the founders' principles. It's not as if they're buying a town that already has residents who would have to comply or leave.
Bummer about the Florida panther, though :-).
Domino's Vobiscum
I wonder if I could build an Orthodox suburb nearby?
If you're a devout (vs. cultural) Catholic this would be a school worthy of your consideration.
I wonder if Dominos ever had a "Find the Pope in the Pizza" contest, like Father Guido Sarducci?
No offense meant, but you sound like the next Timothy Treadwell. [j/k]
Dominos Vobiscuits and Gravy.
Frances Kissling, president of a liberal Catholic group supporting women’s rights to contraception and abortion, said the idea of a Catholic town was “very disturbing”.
I find it hilarious that a supposedly catholic group is "DISTURBED" by this.
That's up to the conclave...;>
Great ideas, being a libertarian type, I am all for people forming local communities that reflect their values.
That said, there are some considerable legal problems with the pharmacy-not-allowed-to-sell condoms, etc. That has been litigated to death previously.
What you have to do is limit stores to very local stores and rely on voluntary compliance --- and boycott.
Given the tenor of the community, this would probably be economically effective.
Many of our "Catholic" universities were already destroyed by the liberal cancer.
Ave Maria University will be a lone voice in the sawgrass plain.
"Supposedly" being the operative word there.
Find the Pope in the Pizza
If I knew who Timothy Treadwell was, I could decide whether to be offended or not. Since I don't, I'll pass on the opportunity :-).
God bless Tom Monaghan!
with "Disturbed" being the rhetorical word...
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