The Story of Ave Maria Town and Jackson Labs

When Catholics stand up for the fulness of the faith, we can accomplish amazing things. When those who profess to be faithful Catholics compromise with the prince of this world, they court disaster. The saga of Tom Monaghan's attempted union with eugenicist Jackson Labs and Ave Maria Town is a warning to those who love the Lord. You cannot serve God and Money. Ave Maria tried to serve two masters. Thank God a small vocal group stood up and said no. Randy Engel's series provides an important historical perspective and, for those considering relocation to Ave Maria Town, a warning.

Jackson Lab and Ave Maria - Part I

Jackson Lab and Ave Maria - Part II

Jackson Lab and Ave Maria - Part III

Randy Engel on Jackson Labs and Ave Maria Town

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Jackson Labs: Will They Cannibalize Babies at the Ave Maria Facility?

Can the National  Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) be trusted to vet Jackson Labs' complicity in human embryonic stem cell research? Apparently not. Ave Watch has an article documenting the extensive involvement of Jackson Labs in the immoral activity. And the CEO of the lab has said that they will not rule out doing it at the Florida facility. And yet NCBC gave Tom Monaghan the go ahead to make nice with the eugenicists.

Think of it. You buy a house in a "Catholic" town because you believe it will support Catholic doctrine, especially the right to life, and find yourself living alongside a scientist from Jackson Labs who is involved in the killing of our tiniest brothers and sisters. No one is talking about this at Ave Maria - not the faculty at the University or the students - except to justify Tom Monaghan selling the property to Jackson Labs so their Dr. Frankensteins can play God. There is definitely something rotten in the state of Florida and Ave Maria Town.

If Planned Parenthood proposed building an abortion mill in Ave Maria one would hope somebody would protest. Why is there nothing but silence over building a facility where tiny babies are likely to be cannibalized for their stem cells?

Ave Maria Town, Jackson Labs, and The Wanderer...Oh My!

Ever since I wrote the article about my concerns over The Wanderer, I have been eagerly reading my weekly paper to see if they will cover the scandal of Jackson Labs locating at Ave Maria Town. And it truly is a scandal to see this anti-life organization with deep roots in eugenics welcomed by Tom Monaghan and Ave Maria University. If you don't think that's what's happening you need to read about Jackson Labs and realize exactly how deeply disturbing Monaghan's complicity in providing the land to build their facility is. Monaghan claims absolution because the National Catholic Bioethics Center provided cover, but that organization is not without controversy.

Randy Engel has a two part article about this mess:

Part I - Eugenics Meets the Pizza King - Ave Maria in the Shadow of Auschwitz

Part II - Ave Maria, Jackson Laboratory and Mass Eugenic Killing

And Randy is not the only one talking about the scandal. FUMARE has an article questioning it that links to a National Catholic Register article. The American Papist also addressed the issue in early June.

All of these sources are asking what is going on? And why? What happened to the idea of the city on a hill where Catholics could locate in confidence that their values would be supported. What will happen to the integrity of the town when one of the biggest employers for miles around is an anti-life organization whose entire history is steeped in the culture of death? It looks like a prescription for the perfect storm of disunity. Culture of life move over and make room for the culture of death. It reminds me of the years when St. James Catholic Church in Falls Church, VA peacefully coexisted with the abortion mill next door. All they did was build a higher fence and sing a little louder and harrass pro-lifers who stood on their property to counsel women and offer alternatives. The devil loves that kind of setup!

One voice has been surprisingly silent while the confrontation over Ave Maria welcoming Jackson Labs builds -- and it's a voice that calls itself "Witness for the Truth." That, of course, is The Wanderer. I've been watching for six weeks to see if an article or a column would mention this abomination. There hasn't been a single solitary word about the Ave Maria scandal, only a puff piece by Jeffrey Tucker (two months old) praising a conference on sacred music held at Ave Maria. Is the fix in?

A newspaper can tell you just as much by what it doesn't print as what it does. The pro-life movement has known that for years and the tea party movement discovered it more recently. The mainstream media ignores those who don't represent their liberal mindset.

So does The Wanderer's silence on the buddy-buddy relationship between Ave Maria and Jackson labs reflect a new mindset where Ave Maria and Tom Monaghan are above criticism? I fear the next thing in The Wanderer's pages will be a full-page ad promoting the university. Or perhaps I and other subscribers will get slick packages from Ave Marie touting their orthodoxy.

Until Jackson Labs is run out of Ave Maria Town on the proverbial rail, no orthodox Catholic can believe that Tom Monaghan cares more about the faith than about money. He has given a lot of it away to good causes and that's great. But a drop of poison can ruin a gallon of water. Jackson Labs will poison Ave Maria Town beyond recovery. Why aren't the "witnesses for the truth" at The Wanderer shouting that from the housetops?

Read more:

Jackson Labs Outlines Vision for Collier County Project

Business Plan Released

Latest Update on JAX-Florida

What's Going on at The Wanderer?

I received my Wanderer in the mail yesterday, as always a week late thanks to the postal service that discriminates against small publications. As usual I gave it a quick scan to see what the main issues are. When I got to the back page the piece that particularly drew my attention was the "retraction and correction" related to recent articles on Tom Monaghan and Ave Maria University and town. I read all the articles and was disappointed that the paper was caving in the face of Monaghan's pressure. The retraction on its face is simply not credible.

Since the very first controversy at Ave Maria over the Monaghan-designed monstrosity of a church, I've followed the events at the school closely. My husband and I were thrilled to hear of a new Catholic college and town and joined the "founders club" early on with regular contributions. However, we withdrew in the light of growing problems over, not only the design of the church, but the draconian actions taken against the Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor. We were appalled at the forced move to Florida including the removal of Dr. Charles Rice from the governing board and the suspension of three law professor who sued the president of the law school, Dean Bernard Dobranski, and Tom Monaghan. The professors subsequently won a settlement including full reinstatement and an undisclosed financial award. But a promising institution that had a 100% pass rate for the Michigan Bar Exam in 2004 and was accredited in the shortest time possible, ranked at the bottom in the 2010 U.S. News and World Report review of law schools.

The Wanderer's series of articles by Marielena Montesino de Stuart on the situation in Ave Maria were very disturbing, but subsequent events indicate the criticism of Monaghan and University president, Nicholas Healy, are thoroughly justified. Naming the sports center after billionaire Tom Golisano with his consistent funding of pro-abortion politicians was shocking. Galisano gave a million dollars to the Obama extravaganza democrat convention, consistently supports dozens of NARAL-backed politicians, and most recently promised to support publicly pro-abortion Charlie Crist after he fled the Republican party to run as an independent. These are the actions of a man who claims he is pro-life?

With regard to the problem of Ave Maria's town charter that allows abortion, what is there to retract? No less an authority than constitutional scholar Charles Rice wrote an article in The Wanderer in the February 18th edition titled The Controversy Behind Monaghan's Ave Maria "Scheme". Professor Rice affirmed all the documentation from the previous article and concluded:

A curious question arises from the conclusion that the absolute prohibition of abortion in the first sentence of Section 6.5(V) is unconstitutional and void. If that prohibition is void, all that could possibly be left of Section 6.5(V) is the restriction on promotion, counseling and referrals. But if “promotion” of abortion is not counseling or referral, what is it? Does it include the performance of abortions? Can you promote abortion by performing abortions? The drafters of Section 6.5(V) drew a distinction between performance and promotion of abortion. But how can you perform abortions without promoting abortion? Promotion, unlike counseling and referrals, is a vague term and should not have been used in that context. If the absolute prohibition of abortion is void and if promotion of abortion can include performance of abortions, Mrs. Marielena Montesino de Stuart’s criticism has merit.

In any event, Mrs. Montesino de Stuart understated her case. Will Ave Maria Town be required to permit the performance of some abortions? Yes, if, as seems clear, Ave Maria is subject to the Fourteenth Amendment under the criteria ofMarsh v. Alabama.

The underlying problem here is that the architects of the Ave Maria scheme undertook to create a town and exempt it from the constitutional restrictions that apply to state and local governments and to private persons assuming public functions by the operation of such a town. The incoherence of that course legally means that it will apparently be up to the abortionists to decide whether some abortions will be performed in Ave Maria Town. Any claim to the contrary is, in my opinion, a misrepresentation.

Since Dr. Rice wrote this, Ave Maria has stepped into another morass (Is it because they're located in a swamp?) over Monaghan turning over a section of land so that eugenics pioneer Jackson Labs can locate in Ave Maria Town. In view of all these problems with Ave Maria and the obvious accuracy of the articles illustrated by the analysis of a constitutional scholar, exactly what is really going on at The Wanderer and why did they print a retraction (with a face-saving refusal to concur on one issue)?

Here's my educated guess. First, everybody knows The Wanderer is in financial trouble. It's mentioned in almost every issue. Second, Tom Monaghan has plenty of money to engage in a frivolous lawsuit which the paper can ill afford and he has shown himself perfectly willing in the past to go after those who disagree with him (Remember the professors at the law school in Ann Arbor?). Third, and this pains me to consider, Monaghan can "help" The Wanderer with its difficulties. All it takes is throwing a troublesome journalist under the bus and retracting a few facts that are true, but unpleasant for Monaghan.

If my third supposition is true, you will never see another critical item about Tom Monaghan and Ave Maria appear in The Wanderer's pages. You may even see full page ads for Ave Maria gracing the back page. And anyone who thinks Monaghan would buy an ad from a critic needs a reality check.

The Wanderer has been described as a "witness to the truth," a well deserved accolade. But if the paper caved to Monaghan over money, that witness is in mortal jeopardy: a newspaper that has been fearless in its reporting for over 100 years has sold its soul.  It's integrity will have been bought by a pragmatist who, while paying lip service to the faith, is willing to compromise Catholic values to get what he wants. Is Ave Maria really about the Blessed Mother and the promotion of the faith or is it the legacy of a man building a shrine to himself? Pray for Tom Monaghan and all those he is willing to injure to reach his goals. The list is growing. Pray especially that this is not the death knell of The Wanderer. I love the paper and have myself written articles for it. The mourning will indeed be great if the great witness to the truth becomes one more jockey in Tom Monaghan's stable.

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.

Ave Maria Stoops to New Low by Banning Journalist from Property

Ave Maria Town is the home of Catholic journalist Marielena Montesino de Stuart. It's also home to Ave Maria University, the school founded by Tom Monahan, the Domino's Pizza giant. Since its founding the university has been beset by problems related to its iron-fisted handling of a number of situations. First it was moving from Ann Arbor, MI and breaking promises to numerous faculty and staff there. Then it was demanding the move of the law school which not only broke more promises, but destroyed its excellent standing and threatened its accreditation. Ave Maria fired Fr. Joseph Fessio - twice, the second time during summer vacation apparently to avoid student protests and adverse publicity.

With Mrs. de Stuart, the iron fist is up close and personal. The university has banned her from its property. But much of Ave Maria town belongs to the university so the de Stuart family who live there are forbidden from their own neighborhood. FOX news covered the story which described how her children are now afraid to leave the house. Makes one thrilled at the thought of living in that town, doesn't it?

That this type of action could take place at a campus founded specifically to advance orthodox Catholicism is shocking, but it's become typical of how Ave Maria operates. Fr. Fessio was fired (the second time) because he PRIVATELY took concerns about the financial stability of the university to the head of the board of directors. Obviously the stability of Ave Maria town is directly related to the health of the university, so Mrs. de Stuart's concern is well founded.

Ave Maria's unchristian behavior has brought criticism from notable Catholics like eminent lawyer Charles Rice and others. The destruction of the Ave Maria Law School and the treatment of several of the faculty members is, as Rice puts it, "beyond contempt."

My husband and I welcomed Ave Maria with outstretched arms. We signed up for the Founders' Club and began giving a monthly donation. When things started to come apart early on we reluctantly withdraw. We felt the blow to the law school in Ann Arbor personally because we knew several friends with children there.

Those who criticize Ave Maria and have any connections at all that make them vulnerable to the wrath of Tom Monaghan can expect reprisal. Marielena Montesino de Stuart settled in Ave Maria Town with high hopes that it would be a truly Catholic experience. What's happening to her now sounds like hell. That it is being done in the name of a university named after the Blessed Mother is not only appalling, but a crucifixion.

Tom Monaghan seems like a sincere man who wants to spend his fortune doing good. De Stuart doesn't question the motives of him or anyone involved in the Ave Maria venture, but one can't help but wonder that a man, who claims he divested himself of his luxuries to pursue a Catholic vision has gone about it like a tyrant. One thing that makes me scratch my head about his comments on pride is the fact that he designed the church for the town. What exactly qualifies the pizza king to design a church, which has been widely criticized. View the videos below and judge for yourself what's

Pray for all who have been hurt during the building of this so-called Catholic University and town and pray especially for Tom Monaghan. A man with money who can call the shots that impact people's lives had better be sure he's doing God's will.