Tom Monaghan builds Catholicville
Pizza Magnate Seeks Catholic-Governed Town
Tom Monaghan (former Domino's Pizza owner, now turned Catholic philanthropist) is constructing the town of Ave Maria to surround Ave Maria University, the Catholic college he is building. He is selling residential properties, but holding on to all commercial real estate...on which there will be lease restrictions: no abortions, no birth control, no pornography. Predictably, the ACLU (among others) is crying foul. But this takes the cake:
Frances Kissling, president of the liberal Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice, likened Monaghan's concept to Islamic fundamentalism."This is un-American," Kissling said. "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."
Leaving aside for the moment that "Catholics for a Free Choice" is an oxymoron, and that nowhere is the Constitution is there granted a right to abortion, birth control, or pornography, what about the basic human right of using your property as you see fit?
We're talking about 5000 acres here. Most people who live there will be working for or attending Ave Maria, and thus theoretically not interested in these products. If they are, it's no big hardship to go into Naples.
I'm as pro-abortion/contraception/smut as the next guy, but it's really very simple: the right to property is the right upon which all other rights are founded. Even the right to privacy (upon which "the right to abortion" is founded) is based on the ownership of yourself. If you don't like life in Monaghan's company town, don't live there. It's as simple as that.
UPDATE:
Ave Maria sets the record straight.
I don't know if the negative press on this was deliberate distorion, or if Ave Maria is backpedalling. In either case, my main point about property rights stands.
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