Catholic Left Upset With Blue Ribbon Jesuit

Ave Maria Town in southern Florida is the newly-constructed enclave of pure-land Catholicism founded and funded by former pizza magnate Tom Monaghan, and it has drawn its fair share of criticism since construction began in 2005.

Even many conservatives are uneasy with the throwback Catholicism that Mongahan wants to recreate in a soup-to-nuts, town-and-gown town that features a "traditional" university--but one that tried to fire the Ratzinger protege and blue-ribbon conservative, Jesuit Fr. Joe Fessio. (Student and other protests led to his re-hiring.)

Early reports were that Monaghan and his development partners would ban anything un-Catholic, like porn and cable TV--and non-Catholic residents--though those strictures were apparently overstated.

Now, a well-reported and well-written investigative piece by the local paper, The Naples Daily News, has uncovered a disturbing legal twist to Ave Maria--namely, that its own residents have no say in their own affairs because the five-member board will be controlled in perpetuity by Monaghan and the developer, Barron Collier.

Read the rest of the lefty converts missive (here) by David Gibson at Pontifications

What is Ex Corde Ecclesiae (here)