Posted on 10/25/2011 8:08:31 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
But there has been trouble in paradise. Construction has halted, leaving half-built subdivisions to mildew in the tropical heat. Lawsuits and a federal investigation have dogged Monaghan. Ave Maria University's ambitious athletic program fell to pieces amid an unholy trinity of F-bombs, firings, and defections. And the town's hidden, anti-democratic, and perhaps unconstitutional origins have been splashed across local news. Instead of a city on a hill, Ave Maria has become a place of secrets and sectarianism....
....In 2003, Barron Collier Companies one of the state's largest real estate developers made Monaghan an offer he couldn't refuse: nearly 1,000 acres to build his university, for free. In return, the company would develop nearby land. Monaghan invested $100 million into the town, planning to recycle real estate profits into the new school....
....[The church in the center of town]...was locked the result of a battle between Monaghan and the bishop of the Diocese of Venice, Frank Dewane. Monaghan had built himself a church; now he wanted to name his own pastor. The bishop refused to let him....The church now has a priest, but to this day retains its ignominious title as the world's only "quasi oratory" privately owned Catholic church.
In the spring, Stuart received another shock, this time in the mail. It was a $1,287 bill to be paid to something called the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District. Like many of her neighbors, Stuart had no idea what that was. Gov. Jeb Bush had signed the stewardship into law June 17, 2004. Like other special districts in Florida, it had been designed to give the developer in this case Barron Collier Companies government-like powers over the town as it was being built. But the special district's charter hid an unprecedented secret....
....there might be no pulling up from Ave Maria University's nosedive. Its law school, which is still in Naples, remains in rapid decline. This summer, only 11 of 23 of its graduates passed the Florida Bar exam. At less than 48 percent, it was the worst result in the state and nearly 20 percentage points behind its closest competitor. The Ave Maria campus, meanwhile, continues to be plagued by high attrition....
....Towey might be reforming Ave Maria University, but there is little he can do for the town itself. There the real baron is Barron Collier Companies, argues Georgia Hiller. The pretty Republican Collier County commissioner suspects that the company via its control of the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District is siphoning money from other parts of the county. This summer she ordered the county clerk to audit the district, but the results aren't in yet. "I was concerned about the accuracy of their numbers," she says. "Ave Maria is supposed to be an independent, self-supporting district. We should not be subsidizing it"....
....There are other signs that Ave Maria is leeching resources away from the county. On October 12, 2008, the town suffered its first truly violent crime. At 2:30 in the afternoon, two masked men, guns drawn, burst into Beckner Jewelry on the piazza. They quickly duct-taped owner Alan Beckner's feet, wrists, and mouth before stealing as much as $100,000 in jewelry. But Ave Maria has no government of its own and no police force. It took county sheriffs at least 15 minutes to cover the 14 miles from Naples to the crime scene. By then, the thieves were long gone.
Interesting.
I’m now waiting article(s) on those godforsaken places where Sharia law is practiced here in the U.S.
Crickets.
Chirping.
CW-II...it’s not just an idea, but a prediction.
Immaculate Deception.
Im now waiting article(s) on those godforsaken places where Sharia law is practiced here in the U.S.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those places are out there. Very little is written about them. For, unless you are a muzzie, you ain’t going in.
And I understand there are Jewish communities also. If you ain’t a Jew - you ain’t living there.
Mormons too have their own communites.
And I recall a quaint little place called Jonestown. Had some tasy Kool-Aid.
Utopian communities never work, regardless of their basis. Florida has always been a magnet for people with ideas like this, ranging from spiritualists to Catholics to Jews and innumerable little Protestant groups. Levy County is named for the Jewish would-be founder of a Jewish utopian community.
More broadly, the mixing of ecclesiastical and temporal power is a lousy idea.
Don’t rightly recall those nasty Jews or Mormons killing those who disobey within their communities.
Just wait, our little encounter with the Muzzies is coming.
"Mountain Meadows" doesn't ring any bells for you?
“Dont rightly recall those nasty Jews or Mormons killing those who disobey within their communities.”
Actually, Mormons did a bit of thinning of their own herd, and others as well.
“Just wait, our little encounter with the Muzzies is coming.”
When do you think the first game of ‘Cowboys & Muslims’ will be played?
This is truly disappointing. I had heard good things about this University a few years ago. I guess it was all spin.
This is the picture which headlines the article.
I think it's self explanatory and tells us all we need to know about the publication's objectivity.
I would take the article with a grain of salt, along with the person who posted it. Liberals have wanted the University to fail ever since it began, and the anti's will happily be a soapbox for them.
My doctor has warned me to cut back on salt, so all can afford to take more of me than usual.
Just look at these whacked out Catholics, will ya??!!
Don't attend Ave Maria folks, or you might end up like this!!
ROFL.............
People said I was daft to build a utopia in a swamp.
But I built it all the same.
Just to show ‘em.
I have visited Ave Maria and met with some of the residents and students.They were all quite happy and content.This appears to be a ‘what is good is bad and what is bad is good’ story.
All I have heard is on the excellent education given. I guess it’s a shame when the facts get in the way of a perfectly bad hit piece.
Wow, Alex... a hit piece on AMU from what appears to be a vengeful God-hater?
Where was Michael Miller when Notre Dame banned pro-lifers from campus? Sorry, Marielena, just because the town and the university are founded by the same people, doesn’t mean the university is your property. (My beef with Notre Dame wasn’t that they banned hostile trespassers from their university; it was that the categorized pro-lifers as hostile trespassers.)
As for Ave Maria’s nosedive... what? Ave Maria is already the fourth most exclusive Catholic university in America, behind only BC, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. The size of a graduating class as Ave Maria law school, still a separate institution, is 209.
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