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zestfivePizza Magnate Modifies Plans for Fla. Town
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The founder of Domino's Pizza backtracked Friday from earlier comments that he'd like to establish a new town in Florida governed by strict Roman Catholic principles, denying access to birth control and pornography.
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The founder of Domino's Pizza backtracked Friday from earlier comments that he'd like to establish a new town in Florida governed by strict Roman Catholic principles, denying access to birth control and pornography.
Thomas S. Monaghan has pledged $250 million to establish Ave Maria, a town 25 miles east of Naples built around a the first new Catholic university in the United States in four decades. Both the town and the university, founded by Monaghan, are set to open next year.
"There's a lot of misconceptions about this. I don't really have a vision for the town. I have a vision for the university,'' Monaghan said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America.''
Last year he told a a Catholic men's group in Boston that pornographic magazines won't be sold in town, pharmacies won't carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will carry no X-rated channels. Monaghan said Friday those comments were "out of place.''
"The town is open to anybody,'' Monaghan said. "The university - it's a different story. It will be primarily Catholic.'' Monaghan sold Domino's Pizza in 1998.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida promised lawsuits if the proposals were to become law. Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said he saw nothing that violated state law in Monaghan's proposals.
"We do not discriminate against anyone,'' said Paul Marinelli, CEO of Barron Collier, an agricultural and real estate firm that is developing the town in partnership with Monaghan.
Marinelli said it will be requested that stores not sell contraceptives, but the sale of birth control won't be restricted. He said the town would not bar access to any cable television program, but the town will not have adult bookstores or topless clubs.
"We're not trying to create a city with walls around it that isolates from the world,'' Marinelli said.
The community will be set on 5,000 acres with a massive church and a 65-foot tall crucifix at the center of town.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The founder of Domino's Pizza backtracked Friday from earlier comments that he'd like to establish a new town in Florida governed by strict Roman Catholic principles, denying access to birth control and pornography.
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The founder of Domino's Pizza backtracked Friday from earlier comments that he'd like to establish a new town in Florida governed by strict Roman Catholic principles, denying access to birth control and pornography.
Thomas S. Monaghan has pledged $250 million to establish Ave Maria, a town 25 miles east of Naples built around a the first new Catholic university in the United States in four decades. Both the town and the university, founded by Monaghan, are set to open next year.
"There's a lot of misconceptions about this. I don't really have a vision for the town. I have a vision for the university,'' Monaghan said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America.''
Last year he told a a Catholic men's group in Boston that pornographic magazines won't be sold in town, pharmacies won't carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will carry no X-rated channels. Monaghan said Friday those comments were "out of place.''
"The town is open to anybody,'' Monaghan said. "The university - it's a different story. It will be primarily Catholic.'' Monaghan sold Domino's Pizza in 1998.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida promised lawsuits if the proposals were to become law. Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said he saw nothing that violated state law in Monaghan's proposals.
"We do not discriminate against anyone,'' said Paul Marinelli, CEO of Barron Collier, an agricultural and real estate firm that is developing the town in partnership with Monaghan.
Marinelli said it will be requested that stores not sell contraceptives, but the sale of birth control won't be restricted. He said the town would not bar access to any cable television program, but the town will not have adult bookstores or topless clubs.
"We're not trying to create a city with walls around it that isolates from the world,'' Marinelli said.
The community will be set on 5,000 acres with a massive church and a 65-foot tall crucifix at the center of town.
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Date: 2006-03-03 07:43 pm (UTC)He founded Ave Maria and actually had classes meeting in an old elementary school in the town I went to college in and has been parading his crazy religion/politics around in Michigan forever, it seems. I remember when the Florida town was just blueprints and a dream and not such a frightening reality.
I already don't eat Dominos pizza because it's crappy, but also because I can't stand TM!