Hello Mark,

Sounds like your vacation was as enjoyable as mine.

It is a bit of a drag to come back and see the conservative Catholics forming up circular firing squads.
Richard | 06.01.04 - 8:54 am | #

Oh, Mark, what a wonderful weekend! I'm so glad it was good for you. Hard-working souls like yourself need a battery recharge sometimes, and it sounds like this one was a beauty.
Patricia Gonzalez | 06.01.04 - 9:41 am | #

AMU is building a hideous modernist Church. That's basically it. Michael Rose wants to stop them from making such a stupid mistake, and putting a blunder on an otherwise orthodox Catholic school.
Jason | 06.01.04 - 10:29 am | #

Sounds like Michael Rose being his normal useless self. 1,001 liberal Catholic institutions that need guerilla warfare & the good old Rose man is going after Fr. Fessio? Not Fr. Richard McBrian or Cardinal Mahoney. Fr. Fessio.

Wonderful! Not!
BenYachov(Jim Scott 4th) | 06.01.04 - 10:48 am | #

What Ben said.

Rose has some valid criticisms of the design and design process but could have expressed them more charitably.

This business about Ave Maria College may be another story. But this is the first I've heard of it. I'm curious if there's anyone affiliated with AMC that can cast any light on it.
Richard | 06.01.04 - 11:43 am | #

Is anyone, who is dismissing the topic Mark refers to out of hand, aware of the facts? I can't say that I am sure of them. However if what Rose says is true about Monaghan's supposed habit of starting Catholic Colleges and then abandoning them, I would think it is appropriate to protest.
Tim | 06.01.04 - 12:19 pm | #

I was hoping this would come up here - AMU and AMC need some public attention - and accountability.

Of course, I could have hoped that someone other than Mr. Rose would pick up on it first, since it seems that given Rose's reputation and given Fr. Fessio's, most people are inclined to give Fr.Fession the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, in this case, Mr. Rose is, as far as I can tell, entirely accurate in his recounting of events. The 2007 class was promised that they could graduate from the College in Michigan, and certain members of the administration have been looking for ways to break that promise. In doing, they would sabotage the effort to transform the college site in Michigan into a new faithful Catholic college, to be called Newman College. The would-be progenitors of Newman College were counting on having the next 3 years to raise money and plan, and instead are faced with possibly as little as a year, or less.

I am a recent graduate of Ave Maria College, and I spent the last month of my senior year fighting this, writing letters to the woefully uninformed board (whose good intentions I do not doubt, and I notice that much of the wheeling and dealing has seemingly occurred outside the notice or consent of the board), and participating in a student led prayer rally during the last board meeting. As a result of all this attention, the board declined to decide on merging or selling the College, reaffirmed the promise of support until 2007, and agreed to form a committee to investigate the potential Newman College. It looked hopeful, and my graduation occurred in an atmosphere of hope and triumph.

Three weeks later, after graduation when all the students had left and many of the staff were planning vacations, one member of the board, also the President of AMU, began negotiations to sell the College to Madonna University. There was also a blatantly illegal attempt to acquire the College's library books and equipment. Remember, AMC and AMU are legally two seperate institutions.

Perhaps Fr. Fessio really doesn't understand what this all looks like from Ground Zero, but speaking on behalf of the students, graduates, faculty and staff of the Michigan facility, I have to say it looks like betrayal, and conduct unbecoming a Catholic institution. Perhaps big business runs like this, but a Catholic school ought not.

Mr. Rose may have a bone to pick with AMU. I certainly don't. I hope it succeeds, and does everything it is supposed to for the Church and to the glory of God! Built on this foundation of broken promises and moneygrubbing, it cannot succeed. Not as a Catholic institution. So it is out of concern for the future of AMU as much concern for my alma mater that I believe the administration of both institutions must be held accountable for their promises and their actions.

I really don't know what AMU hopes to gain from these actions. It is bad PR, and counter to Church principles. They will be squelching the bi
Kate Whittaker | 06.01.04 - 12:21 pm | #

Sorry I went over!


Anyway, if you want more info, you can visit http://www.geocities.com/aveparents

A website set up by some parents of AMC students.

God Bless.
Kate
Kate | 06.01.04 - 12:23 pm | #

Michael Rose has expressed his opinions about the AMU "chapel" in the WANDERER and ADOREMUS. The design is hideous and impractical. This is going to be the largest Catholic church in the United States, for heaven's sake!
The amount of money being poured into AMU is still not sufficient to achieve the university's stated goals of 5,000 students with full science and engineering departments, plus Div I sports. I fear this will be a great boondogle.
Anybody remember the millionaire philanthropist in JF Powers' MORTE D'URBAN?
Sandra Miesel | 06.01.04 - 4:27 pm | #

Hello Sandra,

I haven't read Powers but I suspect I know where you're going with that.

I don't care for the original chapel design. I would agree with Rose that as originally presented it is impractical and not consonant with what I expect from Catholic sacred architecture. I would even go so far as to say that Rose is likely correct that anything Fay Jones-ish is not likely to be fully salvageable even by the very best and most orthodox sacred art consultants and designers.

On the other hand, it is Monagahan's money - or mostly. Maybe when I start up a $500 million trust fund for Catholic higher education I can tell Catholic bloggers to go get stuffed. It must be said that Fr. Fessio is surely in an awkward position, and Rose makes no allowances for that (or even for Christian charity).

I honestly have no idea how much money is now set aside for AMU and conversely how much is required to set up a full-fledged university along the lines proposed. But I have to think Fr. Fessio and his team knows the answers to both, and would have bailed by now or not gotten in line in the first place if they felt Monaghan was a Mad Billionaire leading them down the primrose path.

As regards the chapel Fr. Fessio has indicated (see the letter at CruxNews) that some rethinking is going on and was going on well before Rose's first article, so let us hope this all reaches a satisfactory conclusion. I don't think it is in the interests of renewing Catholic higher education if AMU ends up being a failure. Or if orthodox Catholics show up a bit eager to form circular firing squads.
Richard | 06.01.04 - 7:53 pm | #

The Richard McBrians of the world must be laughing at us over all of this. Michael Rose need to grow up rather than add fuel to fires that don;t need to burn any brighter or hotter.

I hope and pray Ave Maria succeeds. Rather than engaging in petty grumbling over the *scetches* of the *proposed* chapel (which at least is TRANSCENDANT, even though not practical), why not find some real enemies, you know, enemies of the Catholic Faith or just human decency in general? One thing that used to drive me CRAZY as a Stuebenville student, and I'm sure this is somewhat true for Ave Maria and some of the other orthodox colleges, is the tunnel vision to look very intensely and give a lot of importance to the minutae of extremely insignifigant issues, while not always addressing the big picture and causing scandal to Christian unity over NOTHING (for example, when the Bishop of Steubenville said no genuflecting to receive communion, the reaction on campus among some self-proclaimed defenders of orthodoxy was so outraged that one of profs., a Sister, actually broke down in tears in front of class crying "its JESUS, people! Stop fighting over Him!")

Sorry, but after being in the real world for a year, and dealing with the problems of urban high school kids who face drugs, promiscuity, violence, and all kinds of pressures against their faith etc., this just seems so retarded.
Elizabeth | 06.01.04 - 9:15 pm | #

Excuse me? The 'chapel' (actually a basilica meant to serve the proposed town of Ave Maria) is not the scandal here! I don't care how AMU spends its money, as long as it is ethical in the way it spends it! The question of whether they are going to break promises to a couple hundred current AMC students, faculty, and staff and suck another perfectly good school dry to wring out a few more dollers for the building fund is rather a little more important than whether or not the church is made out of glass!! Doesn't anyone care whether AMU is built on Catholic principles and with ethical business practices? It is not charity to pretend all is well when it isn't. If twenty years from now we are reading about the financial scandals of Ave Maria University in Florida, remember that this was the time to establish accountability. If we don't, we will be held accountable for allowing AMU to be built on a rotten foundation, jeapardizing its God-given mission.

As to how it is that good men could be involved in rotten business....Satan clouds mens minds. That's why we need the Church. Even the best of men may silence their consciences with dreams of a better end. THese are all men who want a first class orthodox catholic University - in a hurry. But when you're hurrying, some of the smaller details - like promises and integrity - sometimes get lost in the rush. As an AMC grad, I can assure you that this isn't the first time students have had to bear the brunt of the effects of forced growth.

Please take this seriously!! There are people's educations, family's finances, and many souls at stake here.

Kate
Kate | 06.01.04 - 9:43 pm | #

Kate,

Can you tell us a bit more about the promises made to AMC students and parents?

I'm just genuinely curious.
Richard | 06.02.04 - 1:05 am | #

Richard,

I would suggest that anybody interested in details visit the website set up by some AMC parents for this purpose: http://www.geocities.com/aveparents/

Kate
Kate | 06.02.04 - 8:43 am | #