Catholic Town

The following is taken from an article by Susannah Meadows in 'Newsweek'.

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. 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.

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.

If any group of citizens wish to freely live together, in a separate community I do not object, and fail to see any reason for the state to prevent them from doing so, and as a group accepting such rules as the group make, as long as they can do so without causing harm to anyone.

To quote Thomas Jefferson, The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Provided that the association is voluntary it isn’t any business of any other party, in fact it is discriminatory to prevent them from doing so, even though I don’t believe separating yourself from the wider community is a good idea.

The efforts of the ACLU are just another form of bigotry, not in any way much different to what happens between different religions or denominations.

As a Christian I often think that God has a great sense of humour, he would need it to love some of his more bizarre followers. He could have a great deal of fun by setting it up so that when bigots who discriminate come through the pearly gates, they come into the presence of a chubby oriental guy in saffron robes. The looks on their faces would be hilarious.