Notre Dame Throws The "Ave Maria Pass"

Plans by a wealthy entrepreneur to build a new university in Florida are under intense criticism, within the very circles from which enthusiastic support might otherwise be sought.

Ave Maria College was established in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1998, through the philanthropy of former Domino's Pizza magnate Tom Monaghan, as an orthodox alternative to many of the "Catholic" institutions of higher learning today. More recently, plans were announced to move the main campus to Naples, Florida, where a complete university would be constructed, accompanied by a town, and a chapel to serve both.

It is the chapel that has caught the most attention:

"[T]he 60,000-square-foot glass-skinned church is set to be the nation's largest. Unfortunately, the design unveiled by school officials is an impractical eyesore... Although its floor plan is vaguely reminiscent of a basilica-style church, the unsightly structure otherwise breaks with the history and tradition of Catholic church architecture while tipping its hat to some of the more avant-garde Protestant productions of recent decades... it consciously avoids any connection to the rich Spanish mission style so common to Florida for several centuries... [and] is inconsistent with Ave Maria's reputation for embracing authentic Catholic culture and tradition..."

So writes Michael Rose, editor of Cruxnews.com, and author of an excellent book on Catholic church architecture, Ugly As Sin.

Personally, I have reviewed the plans announced by Ave Maria for the campus and the town. Michael is right about the chapel, of course, but even the town itself is uninspiring; basically prolonging the suburban model that has contributed to the cultural excess of postwar America up until the present day. The institution that would bill itself as "the Notre Dame of the South" could end up being one more example of the "cultural Calvinism" that plagues American Catholicism.

It has even been reported that one of the three golf courses planned for the development will be reserved for the more wealthy benefactors.

Just what the world needs for spreading the gospel -- a Catholic country club.

Thankfully, three students from the other Notre Dame -- you know, the one with the kick-@$$ football team -- have come up with an alternative:

"Matthew Enquist, Ryan Nicholson, and John Doyle are undergraduate thesis students in Notre Dame's School of Architecture. In the final year of the five-year program students work on detailed plans for a hypothetical project of their own choosing... Working under Professor Thomas Gordon Smith, the students also designed three major buildings for the Naples campus... 'Our program was to develop an integrated campus and town master plan,' explained Enquist, 'and then to develop three iconic buildings of this university town -- the library, the civic center, and the church.'"

In other words, more along the lines of what urban planners call "traditional neighborhood design" (TND), where you don't need a car to get anywhere and everywhere, and where, unlike most American suburbs, conditions are more conducive to having daily contact with one's neighbors.

In our next installment, we will review the three components of chapel, campus, and town, in more detail. Stay tuned...