A Catholic Theocracy Grows in Florida
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Sat Nov 08, 2014 at 08:10:08 PM EST
Catholic Right pizza mogul Tom Monaghan and his Ave Maria School of Law are back in the news.  Journalist Eleanor Bader has a new article at Truthout about theocratic communities in the U.S. and the challenges they pose to separation of church and state. She focuses most of her attention on the theocratic town that surrounds Ave Maria School of Law.  

Our own Frank Cocozzelli has been writing about Monaghan's empire for years (here and here) at Talk to Action, as well as in the wider context of the Catholic Right in The Public Eye magazine.

Bader continues the story at Truthout.  Its an important read.

Bader writes:

It's a dream come true for Monahan - a way to build a lasting legacy that honors his commitment to conservative Catholicism. In fact, the creation of Ave Maria followed a 2010 pledge that the now-77-year-old Monahan took at the suggestion of billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. The idea? To give at least half of his fortune - The UK Daily Mail estimated his net worth to be $485 million in 2013 - away before he dies. His first step was building the Ave Maria School of Law in 1999. The program was initially based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but moved to Florida in 2009 to be closer to the newly formed Ave Maria University in the town of - you guessed it - Ave Maria.

Monahan decided to invest in higher education shortly after he sold Domino's Pizza to Mitt Romney's Bain Capital in 1998 - a $1 billion transaction. He then used $300 million to open the two schools.

"The most important thing I could do with the resources I had been blessed with was to help build quality, faithful Catholic education," he told a reporter from annarbor.com. "To have a more global impact, I need to focus on higher education to train the teachers, the principals, the future Catholic university and seminary professors."

Unlike Jesuit or more-liberal Catholic academies, Ave Maria University [AMU] is run "according to the guidelines of the Code of Canon Law," a system of laws and legal principles that are made and enforced by the Catholic hierarchy.  Twenty-eight majors including Catholic Studies, Early Christian Literature, theology and Greek, are offered. Mass is offered three times a day on weekdays and four times on Sundays.




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Monaghan has not endeared himself to former Ave Maria faculty and some residents of his town. Former Florida GOP Tea Party Senate candidate Marielena Montesinos de Stuart is a current resident of the town who is no fan of Monaghan's heavy-handed governance of the town. As for me, I am one Catholic who doesn't share Monaghan's vision of what a community and a faith should look like. I am interested in knowing more about Monaghan's relationship with the rather heavy-handed right wing bishop of Naples, Frank Dewane. Dewane has consecrated Monaghan's oratory and Ave Maria University has received Dewane's blessing, but if I remember correctly, the previous bishop wasn't quite so ready to give his episcopal blessing to Ave Maria University and the Ave Maria Oratory.

by khughes1963 on Mon Nov 10, 2014 at 11:36:48 PM EST
Isolation isn't the usual lay Catholic mode of living in the USA. I associate isolation with "Peace church" and conservative Protestant denomination laity.

by NancyP on Tue Nov 11, 2014 at 03:59:32 PM EST
Parent
You are correct about lay Catholics not living in isolation. In any event, it looks to me that it's a giant ego trip on the part of Monaghan to create a purist sort of community. I can at least understand why groups like the Satmar Hasidim create separate communities like Kiryas Joel, even if there are serious constitutional questions about the constitutionality of some of the leadership's actions. I really don't think Tom Monaghan needed to do the same thing. Ave Maria University looks like it is trying to compete for the same purist demographic that might otherwise send its youths to Christendom College, Franciscan University of Steubenville, or University of Dallas.

by khughes1963 on Tue Nov 11, 2014 at 08:57:58 PM EST
Parent
On a purely religious basis, the potential customers of Ave Maria the town and the university are a tiny subset of Catholics. The town may be doing better than the university due to the likely racial dynamic common in North and South, the town likely being plugged as a haven from urban living (read - blacks). I would not be surprised if blacks and non-Cuban Hispanics are steered away from Ave Maria by real estate agents. On the "plus" side for the university is the location (better than Steubenville, a non-glamor spot in a non-glamor state - yes, I am a native of Ohio), on the minus side is the staggering cost and probable paucity of scholarships. Of course, also on the minus side is the competition from a thriving universe of conventional Catholic universities, which however have too much "ecumenicalism" to be attractive to the ultraconservatives. (Translation: Muslim (and Jewish, Hindu, etc) students and colleagues are not proselytized, and in fact are encouraged to practice and be open to educating others about the contents of their faith - at least at my Jesuit univ.)

by NancyP on Wed Nov 12, 2014 at 11:01:23 AM EST
Parent
I am not an Ohio native, but I live in SW Ohio. You are right about the Ave Maria environment appealing only to a small subset of Catholics, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear of steering going on. My parents live near the University of Notre Dame, which is much better on many fronts than Ave Maria. I recall the huge ruckus that a number of my fellow Catholics who were "more Catholic than thou" created when ND's president, John Jenkins, had President Obama speak at Notre Dame after President Obama's election. It was embarrassing to me to see the President treated with disrespect by my fellow Catholics.

by khughes1963 on Fri Nov 14, 2014 at 12:15:42 PM EST
Parent
Since you know about Notre Dame and live in SW OH, have you seen the I-75 "Touch-down Jesus" in an evangelical church's lot facing the highway? 60 foot statue in center of lake, of Jesus  from waist up with both hands raised palms outward. Original version, no-one thought that a 60 foot steel-frame cast fiberglass object in a flat plain might pose any problem......it got blasted and burnt by lightning. They rebuilt it, hope they thought to add a lightning rod this time.

by NancyP on Mon Nov 17, 2014 at 10:15:55 AM EST
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