Domino's pizza founder to build town governed by strict Catholic law

[buttmunch]

By Susannah Meadows
Newsweek


Feb. 27, 2006 issue - The 5,000-acre tomato field in southwestern Florida sure doesn't look like heaven. Bulldozers scrape the land flat while clusters of Porta Pottis signal an undeniable earthiness. But soon a massive cathedral will rise from this barren spot. Reaching 100 feet in the air behind a 65-foot crucifix, the Oratory will anchor Ave Maria, a whole new town and Roman Catholic university 30 miles east of Naples. Ground was officially broken last week, and the plan is to build 11,000 homes—likely drawing families who already hold the church at the center of their lives.

For Tom Monaghan, the devout Catholic who founded Domino's Pizza and is now bankrolling most of the initial $400 million cost of the project, Ave Maria is the culmination of a lifetime devoted to spreading his own strict interpretation of Catholicism. Though he says nonbelievers are welcome, Monaghan clearly wants the community to embody his conservative values. He controls all the commercial real estate in town (along with his developing partner, Barron Collier Cos.) and is asking pharmacies not to carry contraceptives. If forced to choose between two otherwise comparable drugstores, Barron Collier would favor the one that honored that request, says its president and CEO, Paul Marinelli. Discussing his life as a millionaire Catholic who puts his money where his faith is, Monaghan says: "I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don't want to be on the sidelines."

The ACLU of Florida is worried about how he's playing the game. "It is completely naive to think this first attempt [to restrict access to contraception] will be their last," says executive director Howard Simon. Armed with a 1946 Supreme Court opinion that "ownership [of a town] does not always mean absolute dominion," Simon will be watching Ave Maria for any signs of Monaghan's request's becoming a demand. Planned Parenthood is similarly alarmed. So far, Naples Community Hospital, which plans to open a clinic in Ave Maria Town, says it will not prescribe any birth control to students. Will others be able to get the pill? "For the general public, the answer is probably yes, but not definitely yes," says hospital point man Edgardo Tenreiro. The Florida attorney general's office says the issue of limiting access will likely have to be worked out in court. Barron Collier and Monaghan say they're following Florida law.

Raised by nuns in orphanages, Monaghan, 68, has tried to franchise his religious views in the past, creating elementary schools, a small college, Catholic radio stations and, in 2000, a Catholic law school. While many of his initiatives have foundered, the law school, with 88 percent of its most recent class passing the Michigan bar, is off to a strong start. Early signs suggest the new Ave Maria complex, his final and most ambitious project, might also work out. The developers are close to leasing 60 percent of the commercial space (no pharmacists yet), says project manager Blake Gable, and they have received some 7,000 inquiries from people interested in buying homes, which will go for less than the half-million median price in nearby Naples. In an area of strip malls and bad traffic, Ave Maria's communal design—with shops within walking distance to the homes—has civic appeal. "The general buzz is that the university and town are going to be a spark plug for massive development in that area," says Michael Reagen, president of the Naples Chamber of Commerce. Even the pope is interested. When Ave Maria Provost Father Joseph Fessio saw Benedict XVI, the first thing out of the new pontiff's mouth, according to Fessio, was, "How's Ave Maria?" He's not the only one awaiting the answer.

Wait a sec...if Dominos was founded by a debout Catholic, why are all the delivery dudes non-believing stoners?

[Grimmlok]

This is going to be the most boring town in America, and probably the most dysfunctional.

NAPLES, Fla. - If Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million and calls it "God's will."

Civil libertarians say the plan is unconstitutional and are threatening to sue.

The town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida.

The town and the university, developed in partnership with the Barron Collier Co., an agricultural and real estate business, will be set on 5,000 acres with a European-inspired town center, a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, at nearly 65 feet tall. Monaghan envisions 11,000 homes and 20,000 residents.

During a speech last year at a Catholic men's gathering in Boston, Monaghan said that in his community, stores will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies will not carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will have no X-rated channels.

Homebuyers in Ave Maria will own their property outright. But Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the town, meaning they could insert provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items.

"I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don't want to be on the sidelines," Monaghan, who sold Domino's Pizza in 1998 to devote himself to doing good works, said in a recent Newsweek interview.

Robert Falls, a spokesman for the project, said Tuesday that attorneys are still reviewing the legal issues and that Monaghan had no comment in the meantime.

"If they attempt to do what he apparently wants to do, the people of Naples and Collier County, Florida, are in for a whole series of legal and constitutional problems and a lot of litigation indefinitely into the future," warned Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said it will be up to the courts to decide the legalities of the plan. "The community has the right to provide a wholesome environment," he said. "If someone disagrees, they have the right to go to court and present facts before a judge."

Gov. Jeb Bush, at the site's groundbreaking earlier this month, lauded the development as a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens. Bush, a convert to Catholicism, did not speak specifically to the proposed restrictions.

"While the governor does not personally believe in abortion or pornography, the town, and any restrictions they may place on businesses choosing to locate there, must comply with the laws and constitution of the state and federal governments," Russell Schweiss, a spokesman for the governor, said Tuesday.

Frances Kissling, president of the liberal Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice, likened Monaghan's concept to Islamic fundamentalism.

"This is un-American," Kissling said. "I don't think in a democratic society you can have a legally organized township that will seek to have any kind of public service whatsoever and try to restrict the constitutional rights of citizens."

NOOooooo no mixing of church and state when THE GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA IS BREAKING GROUND AT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE.

Fucktards.

[buttmunch]

This was posted a week or two ago. And yes, it's fucked up. I almost feel like moving there and shaking things up a bit. Maybe wander into the pharmacy and ask for the morning after pill, then crack a beer to wash it down with and perhaps engage in some heavy foreplay with Mr. Butt in the front yard.

[Grimmlok]

Well frankly, i doubt any of the town charter will be constitutional so I doubt their little fantasyland of a mini-theocracy will ever hold up.

[Sojiita]

Jeb Bush's comments and involvement are truly appalling and revolting. I hope they build it and a hurricane misses Florida but spins off one lone tornado that hits only this town and flattens it. God's will and all...

[ralphycnan]

It's going to be a town full of hypocrits.

[Grimmlok]

Well, if you walk down an alley be careful of bloody coathangars.

[moomies]

K, I'm boycotting Domino's and also Pizza Hut for their stupid Jessica commercial.

[buttmunch]

Absolutely, kiljoy! Patronize the mom and pops and screw the big chains.

[LynnieD]

Isn't this called a cult??? Hello??

[alcohol the honey]

Dominos suck! I was never a regular costumer. Why no condoms? Married people use them too. Losers

[buttmunch]

Dominos does suck. I'm lucky in that I grew up in an area crawling with pizza/sub joints run by old Italian guys named Cheech. Ah, for a Mamma Rose pizza right now! I'd murder for one.

[A*O]

This place sounds very similar to Celebration, Fla which is the Disney Corp 'perfect town' we visited a while back. It is CREEPY. All the houses are the same with strict rules about drapes, door colours, etc and lots of bylaws about when to put the trash out, when you are allowed to wash your car in the driveway etc. The 'downtown' HA! part is full of wholesome family dining experiences and you are lucky to get a lite beer. It was HORRIBLE.

[ourmaninBusan]

During a speech last year at a Catholic men's gathering in Boston, Monaghan said that in his community, stores will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies will not carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will have no X-rated channels.

That's why they invented other cities -- so people could drive to
a neighboring town, pick up their dirty mags and condoms, and
come back pretending to live in a wholesome neighborhood.

And BTW, this whole thing reeks of what Disney did with the
Reedy Creek Improvement District -- check out rotten.com for
full details, but the short version is this:

1. Disney slowly buys up acres and acres of land on the sly;

2. They incorporate into a town, which Disney owns;

3. The town governs the theme park and surrounding area.

That way, Disney world in Florida answers to no government except
itself -- the RCID.

[UndercoverGator]

And that is typical of Disney. But sometimes they do not win. About ten years ago they announced that they were going to build an American History themed park here in my town, in the Virginia burbs of DC and they started gobbling up land. None of us wanted Disney here at all and really, building a theme park right off the Beltway in suburbia was the stupidest of their ideas, it would have taken a bad traffic situation and turned it into gridlock nightmares worse than LA and NYC combined. Virginians mobilized, fought Disney to the point where they stopped the project and abandoned the entire idea.