You've probably heard of Ave Maria, the southwest Florida enclave developed by Tom Monaghan, and designed to be the perfect orthodox Catholic town. Did you know, though, that it's like Disneyland, in that the people who live there do not now and never will have a right to vote on the policies that govern them -- and that at least some faithful Catholics who moved in weren't aware of this? That's what a Naples Daily News series reports. What a mess. This thing might not even be constitutional.
Let it suffice to say that this is not the way to do the Benedict Option!
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Mr. Gibson:
You made a fatal flaw when posting this blog item: you presumed that the cub reporter who wrote the series for the Naples Daily News did not misrepresent facts in order to fit his negative story template (why anyone over the age of 12 would ever make such a presumption about a journalist is baffling).
You took great pains to cite in the article that were attributed to my friend Kathy Delaney, hightlighting them in bold as if to emphasize how important her views as a resident and homeowner are. Here is an e-mail note she just sent to everyone in town:
===============================
May 12, 2009 Dear Friends, Associates and Ave Maria Community Members -
My prayer is “ Dearest Mother Mary, please cover for us!”
I write to clarify my support of Ave Maria, Mr. Monaghan and the Barron Collier Co.’s. I have nothing but respect for Mr. Monaghan’s dream, his generosity and his business decisions. I have thanked him for his efforts on several occasions.
I find myself here, invested in Ave Maria because I wanted a Catholic education for my children in a safe, predominantly Catholic environment. My boys are thriving in this respect and I could not think of a better place to raise them. Ave Maria is a beautiful environment with numerous opportunities for growth on many levels.
In a recent article of the Naples News, I was grossly misrepresented by journalist Mr. Liam Dillon. In his opening story, he used my name 7 times to portray an unhappy homeowner. He used my quotes out of context and attached his own thoughts or concerns to my name.
I did not seek him out to complain about the Ave Maria District and on the contrary, I completely trust that Mr. Monaghan will always make the right decisions for our community.
I feel used by Mr. Dillon and I have told him so. I think something wonderful is happening in Ave Maria despite the constant attacks and negative reporting. It’s all about community spirit and our relationships with each other and our Lord. We have a unique opportunity and support base here to spiritually bond together as a community and be that beacon of hope for others.
Sincerely,
Kathy Delaney, supportive resident
==============
PS: Your comments about the church design and the bishop are snide snipes that are not the marks of a man of faith.
"I completely trust that Mr. Monaghan will always make the right decisions for our community."
Well, that says lots about Mrs. Delaney right there. If trusting Tom Monaghan to "always make the right decisions for our community" is a requirement to live and work at Ave Maria, then everyone should be transparent about it.
They're not. That's the problem. The developers and the university administration want to give the appearance that they deal with people in a participatory way. In actuality, you need to have Mrs. Delaney's level of Utopian trust in Monaghan to live and work there. A central point of the Naples News article was that the developers intentionally went to lots of trouble to configure the law so that residents would have no other option BUT to trust, and do it indefinitely.
No thanks. Unwavering trust in, and docility toward, Tom Monaghan is not a requirement to be in good standing with the Holy Roman Catholic Church outside of Ave Maria Town.
"Did you know, though, that it's like Disneyland, in that the people who live there do not now and never will have a right to vote on the policies that govern them..."
And yet, people continue to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of being in Disneyland while simultaneously fleeing the crime and taxes of the US urban cores where their "right" to vote may be freely exercised. Like Derek said, I'm supposed to be outraged?
Democracy is long overdue for reappraisal. As democratic government inevitably, I repeat, INEVITABLY, slides toward social democracy and thence to outright socialism and then collapse and chaos, people will gladly cede their voting rights in exchange for the physical security and relative prosperity associated with city-states governed (owned, actually) by a few key mercantile families. Neo-feudalism is coming, and it will be here whether conservatives or liberals want it or not.
It's very interesting to me that those who are praising this reporter to the skies - and then taking all these shots at Monaghan for setting up this "undemocratic" town - completely ignore what the SAME REPORTER in the SAME SERIES says about Monaghan's role in all this. He says that it is quite clear that Monaghan and his side of the development project knew nothing about how the town was being structured in such a way as to prevent citizen control permanently.
The reporter fingers Barron Collier.
SELECTIVE CORRECTNESS?
Regardless of the correctness of this reporter's premise, my question to the Monaghan critics is this: Which is it? Is the reporter brilliant, insightful, diligent, etc., EXCEPT for when he exculpates Monaghan?
TIME TO BRUSH UP ON READING SKILLS?
It's tiring to read snide comments to the effect that the residents must be stupid because they didn't read their documents. Those who make such comments are the ones who should have read the series more carefully. The reason why residents - or even Monaghan - would be unware of all this is that its not in some document, all neatly wrapped up. It took this reporter a LONG TIME to figure this all out - to see what percentage of the land was being developed, the benchmarks at which voting would kick in - it was different information in different places, very little of it available or findable by anyone. The legislature which approved all this didn't even catch the control implications of the arrangement they were approving.
Why do you think it took a year-and-a-half for a reporter to put all this together if it's was right there in the documents???
BUT, THE REPORTER MADE A HUGE MISTAKE
That said, the reporter figured it out wrong, as is coming out shortly. He overlooked some complexities, didn't have certain documents, and it all adds up to this: the residents WILL be getting control, that was the plan all along. Expect the Naples Daily News to be wiping egg from its face within the next week. The backpedaling will be couched with the predictable weasel words aimed at saving face, like "well, the structuring is POSSIBLY wrong," and "it MAY be unconstitutional," and it is "UNCLEAR whether," etc. I feel sorry for this reporter - they're going to have to take him off the beat at Ave Maria because he's made such a mistake, and the consequences for him and his editors may not end there.
Anyway, try re-reading the series and see what it says about Monaghan.
The following observation is also disturbing, in that it reveals the antagonistic animus of many who feel compelled to comment about Ave Maria (whether it is an anti-Catholic, anti-conservative, or anti-Monaghan animus):
If Ave Marians are the lock-step mindless conservative Catholics some critics claim they are, then the premise of the three part series (that residents are up in arms) can't be true. So which is it?
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