This Town’s Testimonials

Exactly what is so scandalous about a city being configured around a church? A whole territory that later became the state of Utah was configured around no less. Same thing goes for the Pilgrims and their original settlement. I see nothing terrible in this article other than the author’s disdain for a single city being configured around a church.

Todd Rutherford

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Ave Maria may drive some people nuts, but there are many that it won’t. In fact, it will give a little hope for mankind outside the constant barrage of sex, pornography, violence, and money madness prevalent in our culture today. All this error continues to escalate and pervert us to the point most don’t even recognize perversion anymore. It doesn’t surprise me that the media doesn’t get it.

Patrick Stephens

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Your commentary on the town of Ave Maria is appalling. Apparently anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable form of bigotry in this country; you may have well just cut the snide comments about architecture and design and called the 65 million Catholics in this country dirty papists.

Jennifer S. Pugh

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If Walt Disney had built a town around Disneyland, the world would have loved it. Why does it bug secularists so much to have someone do something with a religious take? Where is the god of tolerance?

Arline Saiki

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I think your insults about Tom Monaghan are uncalled for they belie your fear of anything wholesome. Karrie Jacob’s comment that, “Monaghan’s other god [is] Frank Lloyd Wright” is offensive, there is but one God and you are demeaning our reverence for God with this trite comment.

Kathie Marshall

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People have the freedom of choice as to where to live. If, like your writer, they find Ave Maria offensive, they don’t have to live there. Maybe it’s time we returned to God as the center of our lives; the secularism and materialism that you good journalists continue to preach certainly isn’t.

M.K.Groninger

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Much ado about nothing. If they want to have one town in America that has a Catholic value system what is the harm? The Mormons have Salt Lake. Not every city has to exist in the ACLU’s secular notion of what it thinks a city should be.

JBA

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If the founder and people of Ave Maria want to run their homes and community according to certain standards that is their prerogative. The ACLU should not try to force their way of life down peoples’ throat. The government is not building the city, it is privately funded, so it is no business of the ACLU.

Joan Presten

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Tom Monaghan is PAYING for this town. Who are you to criticize? Anti-Catholic sentiment is the only “acceptable” prejudice left in this country. Take a good look at your motives for jumping on this bandwagon. Shame.

Don Bilstein

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I would love to live there for the rest of my life. Wow!

Joyce Lightner
Oconto, WI

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I would move to Ave Maria tomorrow. Every single feature you mentioned as annoying, off the mark, and weird, I find refreshing! Just think of it: no more offensive billboards and advertisements; no more scantily clad youths blasting music that is X-rated; no more drive by shootings; no more drunk drivers killing people crossing the streets. Instead, wonderful decorations and music in the town square during the Christmas season and people who want to practice their religion because it is the center of their lives. Though no place on earth is safe and perfect, Ave Maria sounds like a good attempt at living a normal, traditional life. It’s a try.

Via e-mail

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Great idea for a town! I’m sure that people will be flocking there. It will become the model for many more towns to come, along with the kind of place we want our kids to grow up in and a place that will be centered on God. Hats off to the courage, fortitude, and wisdom of Tom Monaghan! Look out Florida! Here we come!

Shirley Tuttle
Philadelphia, PA

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This is one of the most positive things to happen in our country in many years. I am so thankful to Mr. Monaghan for bringing this project into being and for not being intimidated by anyone. There is a town in Missouri named Branson that was founded under similar circumstances and with similar values. As a Catholic Christian, I am grateful that our Christian culture in the USA is not completely lost but is flourishing.

Anita Restivo

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It seems to me that the author here is very bitter about the Catholic centricity of this town. Why can’t this story be fairly reported without implicit attacks against the Catholic Church? What’s wrong with drawing from our western European architectural heritage? Must we, because this is America, continue to mimic the bland architectural utilitarianism of buildings scattered across this country. I think not. I congratulate Mr. Monaghan and his team for designing something that puts form equal to, if not greater than, function.

Ben Govero

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I applaud Tom Monaghan’s idea of building a “Catholic City.” I am so sick of our traditional values being removed from every aspect of our land—the promotion of pornography and gays, increased sexual abuse of children, and the protection of obscene language and lifestyles. If Mr. Monaghan wants to create a town of traditional Catholic morals with his own money what’s the problem? I only hope that he would be able to do this in different areas of the country, especially where I live.

Denise Matkovich
Illinois

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If someone does not like the way the town of Ave Maria is being set up, then they do not have to move there. I find it a bit odd that there is so much fuss being made about a new town, one where no one currently lives. The developer should be able to build it however he/she wishes it to be built and those that wish to move there should be able to do so without criticism or concern. Everyone else should either stay where they currently live or push to have a town built according to a plan they find acceptable.

Lynn Lillis

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As is typical of this age, this “piece” isn’t about architecture or community planning, it’s about Catholic bashing. Your argument is weak because it is stained with prejudice. Get a life, Karrie! Ave Maria is meant to be Catholic. No one is hiding that fact. If you don’t like the Catholic influence, you don’t have to buy in.

I say, go for it Tom Monaghan! Whether you’re totally overt in the practice of your Catholic faith or quiet and subtle, it matters not. You’re going to be bashed anyway; so you may as well make as big a splash as possible. The choice to structure Ave Maria under the guidance of a true Catholic morality is also a freedom we can’t be denied unless you accept the kind of public money that will enslave Ave Maria to the amoral minority that seeks to destroy true religious freedom in our country.

Tom Hummer

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It is always so interesting to me when Christian values are looked at as suspect. Traditional values are what helped form this country. Why is building strong families and raising moral children such a bad thing? Contrary to what most people choose to believe about Catholic Christians, traditional moral values do not equal hate or intolerance of others. Have you ever heard “hate the sin, love the sinner”?

The Dunlap Family

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Do I detect a strong feeling of being threatened by Ave Maria? I am no American but I will be from now on buying a whole heap of Domino’s Pizzas sold here in Sri Lanka!

Marianne Johnpillai

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I think Ave Maria is a good thing; no one is forcing anyone to live there. If they don’t like the idea of living in a town focused on religious values, particularly Catholic values, then they are not being forced to live there and probably shouldn’t move there.

Sheri Cord

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