Domino's billionaire says economy won't stop his vision of Catholic school, town

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Near the magnificent new church on the Ave Maria University campus, sculptor Marton Varo chips away at 80 tons of the best white marble money can buy, direct from the same Italian quarry where Michelangelo used to get his.

The $3 million, 35-foot-tall bas-relief sculpture depicts The Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary she will bear the son of God. The work will someday adorn the facade of the 10-story Ave Maria Oratory, around which a modern campus and college town have materialized in quick time on the edge of the Florida Everglades.

The recession has a stranglehold on much of southwest Florida, but billionaire Thomas Monaghan's vision for the 1,100-seat church and the Roman Catholic school he created continues to take shape, even if construction isn't progressing as quickly as he had hoped.

The 72-year-old founder of the Domino's Pizza chain had hoped to have a gym built for the basketball team by now. He and the town's developer also expected to see more than the 300 or so houses and condos that have gone up, and more restaurants and stores open in the town center surrounding the towering church.

And plans to erect one of the largest freestanding crucifixes in the world — 65 feet tall, with a 40-foot body of Christ — on the church grounds had to be put on hold.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-05-06-ave-maria-dominos_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

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Sicko calls it a "spiritual military academy". Catholic version of fundies in Colorado?

[mitchum]

1. Too bad he never had a vision for palatable pizza

[KansDem]

8. Well, now we know where all that recycled chipboard is going...(nt)

[saigon68]

15. Let's hope Mr Winkie stays put

[rpannier]

2. It's his money. He can waste it however he wants

10 years from now we'll probably be reading how the town has gone bankrupt and the place is virtually empty -- save for Pat Buchanan.

[MNDemNY]

3. Is Pat catholick?(sic)

[ellenfl]

11. more importantly . . . do ya think pat will still be alive in 10 years? eom

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

25. Nope

[RamboLiberal]

4. It is people like this that make me hope there is a God

Love to see judgement day when they are taken to task for constructing the biggest crucifix, or a crystal cathedral, etc. instead of taking care of the poor.

[Occulus]

5. Ten years from now, his "town" will be bankrupt because

its "police" have been pulling over people with liberal bumper stickers and have been arresting people within city limits for biblical "violations" of "bible law". Those police will- not might, but will- go out of their way to enforce laws that violate the Constitution in a number of ways, this behavior will be traced to the top, and both he and his "town" will be sued right into the ground.

I pity the senseless, foolish believers who move there, but by doing so, they very well deserve to get taken to the cleaners. These aren't "live and let live" types of people, here- these are the "live the way I want you to ro I'll punish you" sorts, and they deserve to get their own tactics and behavior- and then some- thrown right back into their teeth.

[lephty]

44. I've never even seen a police car there

I go out there every few weeks as they have a very nice public golf course (rare to find in SW Florida). I don't think they have any city police as it is still a very small town. I believe it is currently under the jurisdiction of the county sheriff.

[Downwinder]

23. Will it be above water? n/t

[Canuckistanian]

28. This reminds me of the chocolate castle Willie Wonka built for the king

Only instead of hot weather, it's real estate prices that will destroy it.

[WriteDown]

30. Or it'll be the next Notre Dame..

I wonder if they'll have to be in a football conference.

[madfloridian]

6. Pictures and more about it.

Construction in 2007



Ave Maria..city, university, chapel and now law school.

"And a little of what is to be found there.

It will include 11,000 "dwelling units": condominiums and single-family and town homes. To date, 335 dwelling units are under contract.

The town center features 1.2 million square feet of mixed-use space, including commercial retail, office space and condominiums.

140 students are enrolled in a private K-12 school opening in a few weeks. Public schools also are planned.

The 104-foot-tall oratory is scheduled to be completed in time for Christmas Mass. It will seat 1,100. The master plan calls for the construction (not yet started) of a 55-foot crucifix, the largest in North America."

[pointblank]

7. I just threw up in my mouth

This hypocritical money hungry POS. May he be "judged" for being an elitist shitbag.

[kestrel91316]

10. And the Lord sayeth: "Thou hast builded up an abomination."

[WriteDown]

32. Isn't that John Edwards house in Chapel Hill?

Always hated what he did to my alma mater.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

38. Vulgar, utterly vulgar.

Now that is an abomination. :puke:

[Javaman]

39. The all build their own little private Babels don't they? nt

[JDPriestly]

9. Separating a specific religious group from the rest of society

could backfire. Not a smart idea.

[WriteDown]

31. Already been done...

Its called South Bend Indiana.

I will say that they have the friendliest squirrels I have ever had the chance to meet though.

[Sin]

33. The Amish

The Amish don't want to be involved with any of us english, and they have been really good about it for say the past few hundred years.
These people on the other hand well lets say won't do that, Looks like It's going to be a scary launching pad for wing nuts.

[Dappleganger]

42. I don't have any problem with it

as long as they pay TAXES on their earned income.

[santamargarita]

12. This asshole should focus on paying his employees so they won't...

pick their nose and scratch their ass while making your pizza

[CatholicEdHead]

26. He won't all his enterprises are "right to work"

Ave Maria Radio, Ave Maria College (when it was still in MI), etc... He pays the lowest rate and offers no job security.

This is a Cult and not an official part of the Catholic Church. Even the local bishop will not recognize that Church building as an actual parish. He built this to make gobs of money through the formerly pistol hot real estate market. Now that the real estate market is down for a very long time, Ave Maria will go under.

[sandyj999]

13. He got more religious..................

AFTER he had the fantastic headquarters, beautiful home and a huge car collection. He had no where else to go I guess.

[sarcasmo]

14. That IDIOT owned the Detroit Tigers for a couple of years and hired a Football coach

Named Bo Schembechler to run the team, it didn't work and thankfully he sold the Tigers to a much better Pizza maker and team owner Mike Illitch. Religious nut jobs shouldn't own sports teams.

[maddogesq]

36. If he runs that Fla. complex as well as he ran the Tigers...

you can bet it won't last long. Not only is he a religio nut case, he's a bloomin' idiot, IMHO. And I have never, ever had a Domino's Pizza that was good. The last one I got (about 10 years ago) was so burnt you could have taken it outside and played Frisbee with it. :)

[sarcasmo]

41. A Tiger fan who understands, the good thing is we now have Illitch.

That dummy Monahan set the farm system back a decade.

[VermontProgressive]

16. Stairway to Heaven... :)

This is the reason I stopped going to church, not that I was much of a church goer anyway, but when they pass the basket 5 or 6 times, I realized that practicing ones faith wasn't free. If GOD is an omnipresent spiritual essence, then we could talk while I was driving
to work, or wherever, I didn't need to go to a church just to prove to other people that that I believed in GOD.

This poor man must feel considerable guilt if he needs to spend that much money just to prove his faith, and to be remembered as a
Great Christian Icon, do I smell sin.

[piratefish08]

17. WWJD?

where would jesus develop?

[Tim01]

18. Holy cow! He's building an empire.

[Bozita]

19. Current chairman of Domino's chaired Dick DeVos' campaign vs Jennifer Granholm in '06

Just in case anybody has a taste for pizza.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2046905

[and-justice-for-all]

20. And that would be reason number 3 whay I do not eat Domino's

1: His contributions to anti-gay organizations and 2: The pizza is not that good.

"The $3 million, 35-foot-tall bas-relief sculpture..." Hero worshiping, like having imaginary friends, is for kids.

[Sandrine for you]

21. That's what when states don't tax enough their rich ones,

Some of them use the money for some obsolete dreaming.

[tucsonlib]

22. Catholicism ~ American Style

William Donohue, Thomas Monaghan and Mel Gibson - The Catholic doppelgangers to Falwell, Robertson and Dobson. No wonder Catholicism (like Protestantism) has morphed from an institution supposedly dedicated to spreading a message of Peace, Love and Charity into an exclusive club for Greedy, Angry, Bigoted, Anti-Semitic Pedophiles.

These six wackos just might succeed in singlehandedly toppling the entire organized religion empire.

So hey! Maybe they're doing God's Work after all....

.:fistbump: :woohoo: :rofl:

[defendandprotect]

24. Spread the word . . . Domino's Pizza = "pro-life" fanatics

I'm sure "god" appreciates the construction -- especially the cross -- !!!!

I heard "god" thinks Domino's pizza sucks --

[rpannier]

29. Dominos never makes its delieveries to heaven in 30 minutes or less

[Libertas1776]

27. ...

Crazy ass God-Wad, He can choke on his cardboard fake pizza they call DomiNO'S. Thank god I live in a place where you are never too far from a real family owned pizzeria.

[KillCapitalism]

34. Looks like the guy wants to run his own totalitarian state.

The catholic church exists for one reason: to control it's members.

[sandyj999]

43. Someone else tried that. Jim Bakker and his Heritage USA.

We all know how that turned out. Of course King Domino has a lot more money and can buy people to populate his town.

[CatholicEdHead]

45. It did not work for Spain and it will not work for Florida

The spirit of Franco will remain dead to the world.

[B3Nut]

35. And they're trying to raise $100K for a decorative screen...

...for the digital organ's speakers. Complete with fake facade pipes, of course. Granted, some of the new digital concert organs sound phenomenal and if they did the acoustics right might be quite convincing, but there's something plastic-banana about it all the same. Which is fitting...the town looks contrived and fake, and Domino's pizza tastes like plastic...so I guess it's a trend with this guy.

Monaghan could have done it right and had a good American organbuilder build a nice instrument, but instead opted for a box of foreign circuit boards. I'm shocked, I tell you....

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Blue_Tires]

37. i don't think it will happen anywhere near the way he envisions

some automaker (i want to say Olds, iirc) tried to do the same thing in florida (without all the fundiness) decades ago with disasterous results...

and Henry Ford famously tried to build his own American-style factory and worker community complete with stores, schools and churches DEEP in the Brazilian wilderness...Some of the overgrown ruins are still standing today

[jxnmsdemguy65]

40. Ave Maria will destroy some of the last habitat

for the endangered Florida Panther... another reason to boycott Dominos and encourage other to do so.