Clueless or Culpable? Ave Maria Steps in it Again!

Ave Maria Town seems to be a magnet for controversy. The latest bit of scandal is the cozy relationship between Jackson Labs and Tom Monaghan. Jackson Labs has a long history in the eugenics business and internationally is promoting embryonic stem cell research. And yet, they are being welcomed with open arms by the president of Ave Maria University, Nicholas Healy, and Tom Monaghan.

Here's what researcher, Randy Engel, reports about the relationship:

Barron Collier Companies of Southwest Florida in partnership with the Domino pizza magnate and Catholic philanthropist, Thomas S. Monahan (sic), is the creator of Ave Maria Town, home of Ave Maria University. The new Institute will be situated off Oil Well Road about three miles from the Ave Maria campus on the southwestern edge of property originally controlled by Ave Maria Development.

Last year, Blake Gable, Ave Maria Town project manager and President of Barron Collier’s Real Estate Division approached Monahan to discern if his firm’s business partner had any objection to the Jackson Labs project, and if not, would he (Monahan), be willing to sell his interest in the land to Barron Collier thereby making the project independent of Ave Maria Development joint interests.

Concern about the morality of having a large genetic research facility so close to Ave Maria University and Town, Monahan is reported to have sought advice from the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) in Philadelphia, which ultimately advised him that they could see no moral impediment to the land transaction.

Engel goes on to describe the questionable postions of the NCBC on issues like abortion and brain death. She also provides a history of the Lab which is up to its neck in abortion/contraceptive/eugenic research. In the 1960s partnering with Johns Hopkins, the lab helped to develop amniocentesis for the search and destroy mission which has decimated Downs Syndrome children.

Here's how Engel sums up her Catholic case against Jackson Labs:

A Summary of the Catholic Case Against Jackson Labs

Ok. Let’s tally up the arguments against the donation of land to Jackson Labs by Barron Colliers Companies, partners with Thomas Monahan.

Clearly, Jackson Labs officials have deliberately withheld information from the general public and from Ave Maria leaders including Tom Monahan (sic), regarding the role of its founder/Director, C.C. Little, in the early eugenic, birth control, sterilization, racial, and euthanasia movements of the first half of the 20th century. Each of these movements was vigorously opposed by the Catholic Church.

Jackson Labs is a major promoter of eugenics and eugenic abortion.

Jackson Labs promotes and engages in human embryonic stem cell experimentation as well as contraceptive research in violation of the Natural Law and Church Law.

These objections alone should be enough to convince Barron Colliers Companies to scrap the project. If not, then Monahan (sic) along with pro-life state legislators, right-to-life leaders and residents in Florida, especially the students of Ave Maria University and resident of Ave Maria town, should force the issue.

In 1912, Father Thomas J. Gerrard speaking for the Catholic Social Guild, dubbed radical eugenics doctrines as “a complete return to the life of the beast. …Man is not an animal by nature; the table not a feeding trough, and the home not a biological experimental station,” Gerrard said, an obvious slap at the Cold Springs Harbor Experimental Station for the Study of Evolution where C.C. Little was later employed.

Ave Maria Town and Ave Marie University do not need a little Auschwitz in their backyard. (For the complete article, go here.... )

If Ave Maria allows the transfer of land for this evil organization, it is one more example of their trading Catholic values for money. After all, the lab offers potential employment for residents of Ave Maria town. But what kind of employment? If they do this thing, they will be directly implicated in cooperation with one of the most evil movements on the earth. Do your homework, Tom. I'm sure Randy would be happy to speak with you and President Healy.