American Pie: A Hinterland Made For Men With A Mission
…Recently, my wife and I drove 17 miles inland from Naples, Florida to visit another man’s dream, Ave Maria University. Like Walt Disney World, the University and an associated township, are being constructed on 5000 acres of farmland, purchased in this case by a foundation of $250M, donated by Tom Monaghan, a Roman Catholic philanthropist. Mr. Monaghan is the retired founder of the Domino Pizza chain…
John Merchant is disturbed by the way that men with money and power, such as Monaghan and Walt Disney, express themselves with grand designs in Florida’s flat hinterland.
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The State of Florida’s most valuable asset, other than its sub-tropical weather, is the thousands of acres of flatland that aren’t good for much else than to be built on. The Spanish, who took possession of what is now Florida in 1513, were more than happy to swap it in 1763, for the city of Havana, Cuba, captured by the English in the French and Indian War. At the time, the Spanish considered Florida to be “A worthless piece of land.”
Real estate development is gobbling up some farmland, but in truth the farms are marginal, and much of the land is marshy and overgrown, except for the northern counties. The prime locations for development are, as you might expect, along the 1,197-mile coastal belt. But if you’re looking for low cost, relatively unrestricted land, you can find it in the interior, and this appears to be a magnet for men with a mission.
The most notable example is Walt Disney World, and the collateral theme parks of Epcot, and Disney-MGM Studios. That Walt Disney had a mission is without doubt. I sometimes wonder if, deep in his psyche, he believed the world would be a better place if it could be rebuilt as a theme park and populated by his hand-groomed workers with their perpetual Stepford smiles.
To build Disney and its associated parks and hotels, the Organization acquired some 30,000 acres in central Florida, more or less in secret to fool land speculators. When they were done, they found they had some land to spare, so they decided to build a perfect town for perfect people. Celebration has all the euphemistic charm one would expect from a creator of fantasies. There is even a town boat dock, though there is no access to a body of water.
Celebration’s school system recruited the “best” teachers and aimed to produce above average students. Unfortunately, in the school’s first evaluation, the students were found to be way behind their peers in the Florida public school system, and some teachers and administrators were fired. Even as recently as last year, an ex-resident stated “Schools aren't as good as they could be. Principals have come and gone, many run out by parents with petitions, but the education hasn't improved.”
Recently, my wife and I drove 17 miles inland from Naples, Florida to visit another man’s dream, Ave Maria University. Like Walt Disney World, the University and an associated township, are being constructed on 5000 acres of farmland, purchased in this case by a foundation of $250M, donated by Tom Monaghan, a Roman Catholic philanthropist. Mr. Monaghan is the retired founder of the Domino Pizza chain.
Monaghan claims that Ave Maria, founded in 2003, is the first Catholic university established in over 40 years. His mission is to create an institution “Faithful to the magisterium of the Catholic Church.” Magisterium is a teaching authority of the Church, in case you didn’t know. The current total enrollment is approximately 600 students.
The University's founding has generated controversies, including Monaghan's vision of creating a town that would encourage beliefs consistent with the Roman Catholic faith. Monaghan once stated that commercial leases in the town would enforce beliefs consistent with the Roman Catholic faith, including prohibiting the sale of pornography or contraceptives, and banning the performance of abortions.
The unexplained March 2007, firing of Ave Maria’s first provost, Jesuit priest Joseph Fessio, also caused a flurry. No reason was given publically for the firing, other than the standard “irreconcilable differences.”
When my wife and I visited the campus, the first thing that struck us was its back-roads remoteness. Seventeen miles from the nearest city doesn’t seem like a long way, but it is seventeen miles of nothing, other than a few citrus plantations. As a penniless student without a car, it might just as well be in the middle of the Sahara.
A Gothic style oratory dominates the center of the new town, which doesn’t offer much else, other than a couple of halfhearted cafes and a dry cleaners. By far the largest business is the development company’s offices. Not far from the oratory, Transylvania born sculptor Márton Váró works in the hot sun on three massive white, Carrera marble panels that will eventually be installed above and on either side of the oratory’s main entrance.
The oratory itself is quite impressive, but has a grim, sci-fi look to it. The Gothic style is conventional, but the gray painted steel girder flying buttresses and roof arches strike a chillingly eerie note. The interior is un-embellished at this point, but donations are being sought for the addition of decorative features that may help to soften the starkness.
A service was in progress when we entered. The scene, under a massive, suspended bronze crucifix, bright theater lighting, and officiators in modern style vestments, could well have been the Intergalactic Council in session, straight out of Star Trek. The congregation was almost entirely students. As we sat in a rear pew, talking quietly, an older lady, whom I took to be a faculty member, angrily shushed us, so we shamefacedly crept out.
Driving home, I had the same spooky feeling that I experienced when I visited Celebration. There’s something about the way men with money and power sometimes express themselves that, perhaps unreasonably, I find disturbing.
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