I wouldn't be too quick to assume that all the issues have been worked out:

Does the church remain an oratory as it has been described for the past five years in all the AMU literature or will it have the canonical status of a parish as the university has lately come to value (and covet)? Will this be the parish church for the town of Ave Maria and, if so, who staffs it? As Liam Dillon has reminded us in his very informative articles over the last two months, only the Bishop of Venice can name pastors in his diocese. If it is to be used for university religious services, as one must assume it will be, who will be the chaplain appointed by the Bishop of Venice and given the diocesan faculties for that purpose? A university chaplain enjoys all the prerogatives of a pastor and as such is named by the diocesan bishop, as all pastors are. You don't need to go to Cleveland to get those answers, a phone call to Venice will suffice. Of no little significance, what will be the status in an Ave Maria parish church of the AMU priests whose faculties are limited to pastoral and sacramental services to the AMU students and faculty? Will the Bishop of Venice expand their faculties to include the pastoral and sacramental care of the townsfolk?

Finally, what of the intricate financial issues detailed in the 3/21 (first anniversary of Fr. Fessio's firing and the consequent implosion of AMU)NDN article?

Like me, will all the men attending the dedication wear dresses?

If so, what color should my shoes be?

=======================================
Database of Publicly Accused Priests in the United States.
Viewed by Diocese: Venice, FL

http://bishop-accountability.org/memb...

Database of Publicly Accused Priests in the United States.
Viewed by Diocese: Venice, FL

http://bishop-accountability.org/prie...

Nothing says "Jesus" or "God" like a 24 million dollar 100 foot structure. That's just sick.

I hope it is a fully fledged parish church. It should help the resale value of my house. If the community implodes over the next 5 years I will probably break even. If it does well then my investment will pay off. The community is beautiful and I can walk to most everything. When Publix is done I will be able to walk there within 10 minutes. Tell me, what midwesterner getting close to death would not want to retire in a community where you can walk to a 100 ft church and a Publix? You can also throw your grandkids in the water park or join a sports league. Come on everybody, lets be neighbors.

Dear Bigots:
They are not dresses, they are cassocks and you should take the time to go to the library or google and read of the many "black robe" missionaries (including not a few martyrs) who aided in the civilization of this continent.

May the sacred celebration bring the blessings of the Holy Spirit upon the new church. May the Word be a fiery presence. May the Father hold it all in the palms of His hands.

We'll soon need a football stadium. Will it have a synthetic turf field like IHS?

Why not go for a domed, air-conditioned, hurricane-proof structure?

Will the migrant workers be permitted to take shelter there? Maybe Mr. Monaghan will become a saint after all.

Hope it's not too much to ask of him.

A blessing from the "accused"?????

Avemariadawg

Seriously, civilization of this country? Are you kidding. The mass genocide that occured on our soil was not civilized. People did live here before any whitemen stepped on this land. You could drink the water, there was plenty of food, the ground wasn't poisoned. Yup, nations battled, and they had politics (imagine that, they were able to govern themselves). However, please do not martyr people, to whom this day are passing their words of deception onto other "uncivilized" nations.

Something does not jive here.

AMU is all about flash and big press events. Why was there no joint AMU-Diocese announcement or press release?

Think about it. Healy releases this internal memo, then neither AMU nor the Diocese have anything prepared to say?!

"and you should take the time to go to the library or google and read of the many "black robe" missionaries (including not a few martyrs) who aided in the civilization of this continent."

Oh, we've read about those fellows okay. Did many of them do some good? Probably. Were many more of them in fact Spain's advance shock troops in its campaign for global dominion? Without a doubt.

Ask the locals how much they enjoyed being overrun by the black-robed martyrs.

The Calusa obtained their "warlike" status because they had heard how the priests came first, talked the natives into being peaceful and getting right with God, and then stepped aside while the soldiers swarmed the villages and implemented "God's will," which likely as not meant becoming a slave in one of their mines. The Calusa made it their practice to kill the priests on sight, and didn't worry how unsociable it made them seem.

This whole Ave Maria thing is a parable of sorts, about a freedom-seeking follower of the Lord, denied the right to worship in his own fashion, striking off to a new world to start over, do it right, and build an empire in the Lord's honor no matter what impact his dreams have on the natives.

I see the tale layered over a love song to the land and a way of life corrupted by the cheap trinkets the traders offered, the whole thing bound by destiny, following the course carved by the constantly warring factions of Man's will and Nature's way.

Elnuestros must get back to work.

Oremus,
By "aiding in the civilization of the continent", I assume you mean forcing your ideaology on someone because you believe it's the only way. And of course those who did not accept would have to be murdered in the name of God. Like the Spanish inquisition, when King Ferdinand and the Pope held hands and decided that those who converted out of fear might still be holding on to their personal beliefs. So how would God flush out these free thinkers? Of course, torture them with implements of human mutilation. The Catholic church has a history of setting loose insane monsters to find the truth. The Salem inquisitions? How many innocent men and women died needlessley? Well, you can thank your God that you weren't discovered raping children during this period in history. Even today, building $25 million dollar temples. You're all still insane.

Ever been to Rome? You can't avoid, at every turn, something you can buy "officially" sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Go to the "official" Vatican shops and, if you are a well dressed American, they will take you back into a secure room and put the hard sell on you to purchase a $20,000 jeweled gold crucifix. Jesus is hand painted by some local artist.

This Catholic Church is one HUGE COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE where, for the price, your soul is saved. This isn't a recent evolution; way back when (up until the 14th -15th Century??), priests led, married, family lives until the Vatican realized their church real estate was being willed to the surviving family estates following the death of the priest. AND THE POPE SPOKE.. LET ALL OUR PIOUS PRIESTS OF GOD BE CELIBATE and WALLAH!! the church became the wealthy global real estate mogul it is today.

Oh, and the our Priests have been forced to lead lives of what... men are what they are but.. not? Do you think we would have issues with child molestation or extramarital affairs if Priest could be what they are... men of God and men; family men? I find it ironic that we celebrate the immaculate conception/the Virgin Birth and our Priests are required to lead celibate lives. Why ask men to conform to a ritual rite even God could not adhere to? He created man as man and, yet, we require some men to act as if they are God.. which, as we well know, they are not.

Some day the Catholic Church will put God in lieu of the holy dollar first and allow Priests to do their jobs as his Disciples and MEN of God.

it is always a wonder how the non-believers/atheists are fixated on the Catholic church when it poses no threat to their lives or their livlihood.and they post with insults and ridicule which demonstates a very weak point of view..of what business is it of anyone whether Monaghan spent 24 million or 24 dollars of his OWN MONEY to build a church...this is a decision of a single person ....not the church

Yes Canuck

And now we also see that a fool and his money go their own separate ways.

Yes, YeOldeNaples, it’s an unhappy day indeed not only for the bigots, but for the blogging naysayers who have had nothing but ill will for the people of Ave Maria. Apparently lacking a life of their own, they devote what little life they have to running down the town and the university. Even now, they are grasping at straws that somehow the Oratory arrangements will be a slap in the face of Tom Monaghan.

Expect them to continue to maintain that Tom Monaghan wanted to defy the bishop’s authority to appoint a pastor, although they have not a single quote to support this.

More bad news is on the way for them, I fear – I’m betting that the bishop’s arrangements will provide for having the residents' pastoral needs met right in their own home town. And everyone will be happy that the bishop will make the necessary appointments. All good news for normal people who generally wish others well, but very sad news for those crabbed individuals whose full-time hobby it is to wish ill to everyone connected with Ave Maria.

I agree, the 24 million could have been put to better area's.
They couldn't even get along well enough to bless it.

Wouldn't God be proud of that fact!!!!

another POV........
Monahan had the permission of the church to build the oratory in conjunction with the university he was building WITH HIS OWN MONEY...the church is then turned over to the control of the archdiocese just in the same manner that all churches in the western world are built by the local parishioners with money they raise..after permission is granted... and then turned over to the local archdiocese..the Archdiocese has the control
when I said this is a decision of a single person I was alluding to the fact that he chose to put up his own money
so please be knowledgeable about the subject before posting statements that have no truth

If anyone posted anti-Jewish sentiments on this website equivalent to the anti-Catholic comments posted here, they would become persona non grata, and be banished from polite society. If they dared to post anti-Muslim material of the same magnitude, they wold endanger their lives. But rest assured, no one has anything to fear from Catholic "bigots," fire away, we can take it.

For the "ill-informed": This is an oratory, not a church. Please research the difference before forming an opinion on who controls what.

POV ...read my post again but slowly as you are quick to form an opinion based upon your own agenda ...I was speaking about spending 24 million of his own money and that WAS HIS decision..not the church's

what has your interpretation of my post got to do with the facts which you did not know

YeOldeNaples:

The English found the Spanish model faulty. The Church of England failed to grab the control Catholicism did. Maybe they should have had an Inquisition and water-boarded a few disbelievers to get them on track with the program.

Anyway they didn't, and so we got a North America scrubbed free of most natives, a Central America so beholden to the Catholic god that human-rights sacrileges like Mexico, Nicaragua, Chile, Nicaragua and El Salvador blossomed like chapels on fields fertilized by the bleached bones of the non-believers.

And while the English model resulted in the annihilation of the Native Americans through a different path, where, in my post, did you discern any endorsement on my part of that approach over the other? This isn't a zero-sum game, my man. A pox on both their houses.

The history you have revealed through your posts speaks perfectly to your attitude about logic, so I'm not hoping to find any in your latest effort.

But please, answer my charges directly and don't commit the illogical and fallacious error of saying, in effect, "Yeah, so what? It's better than what happened under England."

Especially when I offered no defense whatsover of that nation's strategy in regard to empire building, and its existence mattered not one whit to my argument.

One final, small point: What you do is not educate, but proselytize. I don't have to "go back to school" to recognize the difference. And given the sorry state of the country under the loving but firm hand of the theocrats, god-thumpers, Zionists, queer-baiters, and Sunday-morning believers installed by the Bush administration, I'm not sure even going back to school would be the place to learn anyway.

Yours in Christ,

elnuestros.

If there were no other reason to distrust the people behind Ave Maria -- and that is certainly not true -- then the rabid Taliban-esque allegiance of people like YeOldeNaples should be enough to give any rational person pause.

It's not zero sum. If Pat Robertson wants to build a holy city in the Everglades, we'll discuss Protestants, okay? But he isn't, so it's not the issue.

Speaking of crazy Protestants, how does our faithful zealot feel about John McCain seeking the endorsement of a fundamentalist who calls the Catholic church "the great woman of allegedly ill repute?"

C'mon, YeOldeNaples. Pitch one right down the middle for us. Inquiring minds would love to see how you finagle your way out of that apparently fatal internal contradiction. Didn't Monaghan endorse McCain (after Brownback and Romney folded)? Who's "defending" Protestants now?

Hypocrites of all people better hope there's no fiery Hell to claim their sorry lying souls. Non-existence would be heaven compared to the reward they earn through their double-dealing and moral fraud.

I see the oratory is out of pergatory...how much did that cost Uncle Tom....
if the priest see his shadow on easter does that mean we have another 6 weeks of q-tip tourist??

this is going to be very good for naples and building of the faith in general.

you should see what is happening in Rome City, IN with Our lady of America and what may be THE most important faith-building event in the history of the United States at www.oltiv.org

when Pope Benedict arrives next month, he is certain to have meaningful commentary on this topic.

Yee Gods--Yee Olde are you STILL at it ?
When will you admit that this discussion is about $$$$ and not about the RC religion.?
Monaghan surely made a deal to have the oratory dedicated. He probably just did not come up with enough money in the firt go-round to please the diocese.
And by the way Canuck--the Pizza Pope had NO permission from the diocese to build the church--that is what the whole "dedication or not" issue is about.
Anyone ever hear of a "quasi-parish" before ?Bet you won't find any . This is a title just dreamed up with a little "grease" so that both TM and the Diocese could save face.
Money it is and Money it will always be...

#6 oremus
I agree EVERYONE should take the time to go to the library or google and read of the religious missionaries (including not a few martyrs) who FORCED their religion down the throats of many indigenous tribes , all in the name of civilization of THIS continent, their continent.

But of course Catholics know what is best for ALL, right?

http://www.burningcross.net/crusades/...

The bishop could designate the building as a chapel; this seems the best thing. Church documents distinguish between church, chapel, and oratory. A church is, well, a church. A chapel is place dedicated for public prayer with an altar for saying the Holy Mass. An oratory does not have an altar; it is a general place of prayer. It could be a "prayer corner" in your house, a hermitage used by monastic orders, a devotional spot with a statue on shrine grounds, etc.
The main diference between a chapel and an oratory is that oratories do not have altars.

Ooops,tommy joe: This "oratory" already has an altar--a massive one made of the finest wood,sort of shaped like a conference table.
Guess the recently renamed " oratory" will have to be a church/chapel/quasi-parish after all. It all depends on who is the most sanctimonious bully in this impasse.

Woah! I'm just glad Oprah's intentions weren't so harshly questioned when she opened that school in Africa. I think the folks with the alterior motive are the bloggers not Monaghan. Oprah and Monaghan are both rich so that's not the reason, if race were the issue Oprah would be held back instead, same with sex--wait, wait, I know, I know--he's Catholic and she isn't. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! Everybody hates a Catholic. And who has the ill will?