Does anybody read these?

Tom Monaghan beat me to the punch!

Oh, Tom, you've changed your tune. Your little crazy Catholic town of Ave Maria has been totally watered down. I must admit that it was a very interesting concept. Had it worked we could've created all kinds of very deliberately exclusive communities. It's bad enough that our country's never quite overcome the implied racism here. Putting all the Catholics in one place, all the blacks over here, all the Hispanics here. Oh, I've gotten ahead of myself. Even if I didn't love diversity and living in places where everyone doesn't look and think alike, I don't think I could've handled living in the town of Ave Maria. But we all know that I don't always agree with the church on everything anyhow. And I've never considered myself anywhere near the unique brand of ultra-conservative Catholicism that you espouse. I just hope that if you have a town of 25,000 people that doesn't sell condoms, that your hospital has a very large maternity wing. Of course, without porn, maybe you won't need it. Who knows? It doesn't even sound like a good place to visit.

Actually, even before crazy-ass ideas like Catholic Town and the huge, giant, light-up cross in Ann Arbor, I've had some issues with Tom Monahan. I guess I shouldn't; he used to give mad cash to our high school. But I guess "used to" is where my issue lies. You see, Tom was an orphan raised by nuns. He ended up inventing Domino's and the concept delivering pizza. He started that in Ann Arbor and catered to college students. Obviously, it was a roaring success and he's a gazillionaire. Tom used to own just about everything in Detroit (OK, everything that fellow pizza magnate Mike Illitch didn't own, actually). But several years ago he sold the Detroit Tigers, sold Domino's and several other of his interests. He decided to focus 100% on charitable giving, primarily to the Church. His goal is to die penniless.

That's admirable. As a Catholic, it was great for a while. He was giving to schools and parishes that really deserved it. We all loved Tom. But then one day he woke up and realized that he was a lot more conservative than most churches. So he took his money and started building his own churches and schools. He even started his own religious order. And he seems to subscribe to this very conservative, pre-Vatican II way of thinking that the rest of the church is trying to get away from. So while we have churches and schools in Detroit closing everyday, instead of helping them, Tom is helping these new schools he invented. And now apparently he's building a new school in Florida (that's been in the works for a while) and a community to go with it. I think part of the reason he isn't sticking with his original concept for Catholic Town is because he'd never find 25,000 Catholics who'd live there. Because I just can't imagine it'd appeal to mainstream Catholics.

I kind of liken what Tom Monaghan's done with these new schools to these folks who are for prayer in public school. They spend all this money and effort fighting to keep prayer in public schools. They expend all this energy and take up the fight. They become crusaders. Meanwhile, their local parochial schools, where prayer is not only allowed, but encouraged, close down because they have no support. No one is taking up their fight. Same thing with school vouchers. If you support religious education, support it the smart way.

I'm not saying Tom's wasting his money. It's his and he can do with it whatever he wants. I just don't think anyone, anywhere needs to build more Catholic churches when every diocese in America has a "hit list" of parishes that are going to have to close because they have no support. Because giving your money to the church is giving your money to the church, regardless. I guess I just wish I could take a peek in his brain and see what's really driving this train that he's on.

posted by Laura at 1:44 PM