Domino’s Pizza Founder Plans to Build a Wholesome Florida Town

By Linda Orlando

From the moment word got out about the town that Domino’s is building, civil libertarians began lining up to trumpet their outrage and threaten lawsuits. Thomas S. Monaghan, the pizza magnate raised by nuns in Catholic orphanages, is turning a deaf ear to their whining and moving ahead with his plans, saying that it is "God’s will" for him to construct such a place.

The town is being constructed around Ave Maria University, founded by Monaghan, which will be the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in 40 years. The town will also be called Ave Maria, and both the town and the university will open next year about 25 miles east of Naples, Florida. In a speech last year to the first annual Boston Catholic Men’s Conference, Monaghan said that stores in the town will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies won’t carry birth control pills or condoms, and cable television will not carry any X-rated channels.

The community is being developed on 5,000 acres in a quiet corner of southwest Florida. Barron Collier Co., an agricultural and real estate company, has partnered with Monaghan to develop Ave Maria, which will have a European-inspired town center encircling a massive Roman Catholic church. Planners say that the town center will feature the largest crucifix in the nation, standing nearly 65 feet tall. Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the town and may include provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items. Homes in Ave Maria will be purchased outright by prospective buyers, and housing prices will range from affordable to extravagant.

Florida pharmacies are not bound by law to provide contraceptives. Naples Community Hospital is planning to open a clinic in Ave Maria, but they will not prescribe any birth control to students. The hospital has not yet decided whether it will prescribe them for the general public.

Gov. Jeb Bush attended the recent groundbreaking of the university, where he praised the development as a new kind of town, where faith and freedom will come together to create a community of like-minded citizens. Bush did not specifically address the issue of the proposed restrictions, but Russell Schweiss, a spokesman for the governor, issued a brief statement on his behalf. "While the governor does not personally believe in abortion or pornography, the town, and any restrictions they may place on businesses choosing to locate there, must comply with the laws and constitution of the state and federal governments," said Schweiss.

Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, was among the first to jump on the bandwagon of protestors. "If they attempt to do what he apparently wants to do, the people of Naples and Collier County, Fla., are in for a whole series of legal and constitutional problems and a lot of litigation indefinitely into the future," Simon told reporters. Simon acknowledged that there are religiously homogenous communities in other places in America, from Mormon to Hasidic Jewish, but he said that none of those communities can "wield governmental power along the lines of religious principle." In his railings against the strict censorship planned for Ave Maria, Simon points to a 1946 Supreme Court opinion that "ownership does not always mean absolute dominion."

Robert Falls, a spokesman for the project, said that Monaghan’s attorneys are still reviewing the legal issues surrounding the proposed bans. Florida Attorney General Charlie Cirist said, "The community has the right to provide a wholesome environment. If someone disagrees, they have the right to go to court and present facts before a judge." Monaghan himself will not say anything until the legal issues are resolved, but in a recent Newsweek interview he commented on why he feels the need to develop such a unique place. "I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil," Monaghan said. "I don’t want to be on the sidelines."

Frances Kissling, president of the liberal Washington, D.C.-based Catholics for a Free Choice, said that the concept for the town is akin to Islamic fundamentalism and the teaching of intolerance. Her organization opposes the church’s bans on abortion and birth control, and she says that the idea of a town like Ave Maria is "country club Christianity." Kissling added, "This is un-American. I don't think in a democratic society you can have a legally organized township that will seek to have any kind of public service whatsoever and try to restrict the constitutional rights of citizens."

Kissling and the other civil rights advocates lining up to protest loudly need to revisit the definition of constitutional rights and what it means for something to be rooted in American values. America was founded on the principle of individual freedom, not on the principle of everyone having to adjust their views to accommodate everyone else’s individual freedom. Anyone who doesn’t agree with the concept of a faith-based town with wholesome values certainly has the constitutional right to exercise their freedom to live somewhere else.