Tom Monaghan's Ave Maria University is meant to be inside a "gated community" Catholic town, too. He envisions having a porn and contraceptive-free town (story here). Commenters on the Catholic blogosphere are freaking out over this proposal. Truth be told, I agree with many of the criticisms leveled at the project at almost every level. But for heaven's sake, people, what is wrong with minding our own business and letting people try? Sigh. Why must practicing Catholics always eat their own?
What I actually want to address, however, is this paragraph of the story:
"What’s more, the ascension of Pope Benedict XVI has many conservative Catholics hopefully anticipating a smaller, purer, more obedient Church. If Ave Maria becomes a reality, it will become the American embodiment of this ideal — a combative bastion of orthodoxy in a sea of dissent and deviance."
You see it said very commonly that B16 envisions a remnant Church --one of "creative minorities." It's true that in an important address as Cardinal he talked about this concept --but I think it overstates the case to say that he called for the Church to shrink in size. In a discussion of the decline of Europe, Cardinal Ratzinger commented on the conflicting prognoses for Europe of two other thinkers --Spengler and Toynbee. The term "creative minorities" is Toynbee's not Ratzinger's, and in his use of it, I think it's clear that all he is saying is that the true power of Christianity lies in living witness, not words. The whole thing is well worth reading, so see if you agree. At any rate, whatever the eventual outcome of Ave Maria, I don't think what B16 has in mind is "gated communities."
