"Pizza pope" builds a Catholic heavenby Tony Allen-Mills
The Sunday Times February 26, 2006
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 100-ft. (30 m.) 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. 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, an endangered species.
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