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Article: All roads lead to Rome: Mogul Tom Monaghan envisioned Ave Maria as the perfect faithful community. But will its residents sing from the same hymnal?(Ave Maria University)
- Article from:
- The American Conservative
- Article date:
- August 25, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 The American Conservative LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SIX YEARS AGO, Tom Monaghan, the Domino's Pizza founder turned Catholic philanthropist, flew over southwest Florida and saw a dream become possible. Amid the run-down tomato farms, he would transplant his Michigan-based Ave Maria University and develop an entire community by the same name, putting the church physically and spiritually at its center. For a time, he even hoped to ban pornography and contraceptives there. But just a year after the town opened, Ave Maria has attracted more controversy and fewer residents than Monaghan ever expected.
The ten-mile Oil Well Road that runs west from the sprawl of Naples to Ave Maria is narrow and dangerous. It becomes ...