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Thousands welcome Ave Maria oratory into Roman Catholic Church
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Ave Maria Dedication: March 31, 2008
Ave Maria University officials expected 2,000 people for the celebration, which was free and open to the public, including a capacity 1,100 worshippers inside the 27,000-square-foot building.
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What was once just a tomato field is now holy land. What was once just a building is now a sacred place.
Ave Maria and the Roman Catholic Church joined Monday in a 1,500-year-old ceremony that dedicated the town’s 100-foot, $24 million landmark as a church and made official the link between the new community and its inspiration.
Diocese of Venice Bishop Frank Dewane led a two-hour service in front of 1,100 worshipers inside the church, known as the Ave Maria Oratory, and about 1,000 others watching the celebration on closed circuit television nearby. The service functioned like the building’s baptism, dedicating it as a house of worship and celebrating its first Mass.
All elements of Catholic sacred life, including Mass, baptisms, weddings and funerals, will now be performed inside.
The ceremony began in the mid-afternoon with Dewane’s hands clasped in prayer, standing outside the church, leading a procession of priests.
“Grace and peace of God be with you in this holy church” were Dewane’s first words.
And then, Dewane and the priests entered, beginning a service filled with intense ritual, ceremony and prayer.
Illuminated by sunlight and thousands of watts of electricity, sounds of the choir singing, camera shutters clicking and babies crying mixed with the smell of burning incense.
In his homily, Dewane spoke of the Feast of the Annunciation and quoted Pope Benedict XVI: “Mary tells us why church buildings exist.” The feast day, which celebrates the angel’s appearance to the Virgin Mary to announce she would carry the baby Jesus, is vital to Ave Maria. The Blessed Mother is considered the community’s patron saint and its street grid is oriented toward the sunrise on the traditional day the feast is celebrated.
Nearly four years ago to the day, plans for the church were first revealed in a North Naples hotel along with the initial phase of Ave Maria town and university. They were to be built on old tomato fields in eastern Collier County on land donated by area developer Barron Collier Cos. to university founder and former Domino’s Pizza magnate Tom Monaghan. Together, they would build the town.
The centerpiece, linking the town and the university, was this building, then envisioned as 150 feet tall with a larger seating capacity than any Catholic place of worship in the country.
Since then, the building’s size and its seats were scaled down, but its construction came with its vaulted ceiling and steel buttresses rising toward the heavens. Along with the building came just under 500 students and the first couple hundred homeowners, a majority of whom are Catholic.
Those students and residents were overjoyed at the church’s dedication.
“This is the biggest step the school could have made,” said freshman Joseph Satkowski, 19, as he stood waiting to enter the building. “Yes, we’ve had the first day of classes and the town opening, but until you have that faith center, everything else feels superfluous.”
Sitting in a pew before the service, Marielena Stuart waved her camcorder excitedly. She sat next to her husband, Thomas, and in the row in front of two neighbors, Karen Apang and Kathy Delaney, who also had camcorders. They all live on Kentucky Way in town and can see the back of the church from their homes. They prayed for this moment every day.
“You can imagine that this church is supposed to be the center and the heart of the town,” Stuart said. “Without this church, it was like we didn’t have a heart. Now it’s like we’re alive.”
Now, Stuart said, her 7-year-old son, John Paul, could have his first Holy Communion inside.
The road to Monday’s dedication didn’t go as smoothly as its founders hoped. Monaghan said he wanted the ceremony to take place in December, then in January and then the university didn’t plan any more. Prolonged negotiations with the diocese over the building’s status were taking place. Neither side would address substantive issues involved, but church experts speculated matters of spiritual and financial authority were at play.
After Monday’s service, both sides made oblique references to disagreements — university President Nick Healy called them “the complexities of the whole situation here” — but declined to elaborate.
What university officials wanted to emphasize, however, was that the bishop is in control of pastoral care and they are working toward the same goal: the development of the Catholic faith.
Responding to a question about who was in charge, Monaghan pointed to Dewane.
“We respect the bishop, we’re always obedient to the bishop and we’ve always intended to be,” Monaghan said. “If we don’t do that, we’re hypocrites as far as being a Catholic university. That’s the way the church is structured and that’s the way I believe it should be.”
Dewane said his concern above all else was and remains appropriate care for the town’s Catholic population.
“Always when there are people gathered in an area, I look and the other bishops of the country do look at how do we set up a church there, how do we realize the spiritual life of the people,” Dewane said. “That’s what this does today for the town. It renders very present the fostering of the spiritual life.”
But the ceremony doesn’t mean the relationship between the university and the diocese is now clear. The official name for the structure is “the quasi-parish of Ave Maria Oratory,” a term that unlike “parish,” “church” or “oratory” is imprecise in Catholic law, experts have said, implying a unique arrangement between the school and the official hierarchy.
Near the end of the dedication, Dewane announced that the Rev. Robert Tatman, a diocesan priest, would be priest administrator in charge of the church. Tatman, 48, formerly the parochial vicar at St. John the Evangelist in North Naples, will oversee liturgical life in the community.
“I am very glad to be part of this and the new initiative that’s behind it,” said Tatman, after the service. “We’re trying to make the Catholic presence really viable as an institution here. That’s what we’re all working toward.”
But what has now become clear — after the building’s construction, after townspeople have settled into their homes, after students have started their classes and after Monday’s ceremony — is that the building is now holy, not only in the eyes of its community, but also in its church.
“It’s only steel and concrete until it’s dedicated and consecrated as a church,” Monaghan said. “To put that into words would be beyond my capabilities.”
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#1 Posted by prometheus on March 31, 2008 at 10 p.m.
No crowd control.People without tickets crowded in and took the seats of the people with tickets.
#2 Posted by oremus on April 1, 2008 at 12:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Congratulations to all involved!
Mark J. Chermside, Naples
#3 Posted by mchermside on April 1, 2008 at 1:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I heard kids got free admission.
#4 Posted by cubs84 on April 1, 2008 at 3:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"No crowd control.People without tickets crowded in and took the seats of the people with tickets."
God told them to. He actually sent an angel to whisper into their ears that they were more deserving.
Really.
#5 Posted by elnuestros on April 1, 2008 at 4:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Liam, You have really gone overboard on this one.
Again ,how does the news desk of the NDN allow this story that belongs,if anywhere, in the religion section of the paper -to fill the front page. How parochial.
Let's get back to the basics of the story --how did the term "quasi-parish" develop ? What an accommodation that is. Are there any others in the US ? I think not
And how is the University accreditation going.?Right now those students can not transfer their credits to any college in the country ...
Money $$$ it is and pomp and circumstances for Monaghan's birthday party.
#6 Posted by LooLooney on April 1, 2008 at 5:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Lot of very angry and bitter people here today. You don't have to step foot in Ave Maria and if you can't understand why NDN is covering such a major occurrence in its own backyard, then you are stupid also. Focus your bitter lives on bettering yourselves. You really are pathetic.
In person, comments like those above would cause most normal people to distance themselves.
Isn't the internet grand?
#7 Posted by naplesregular on April 1, 2008 at 6:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow, ecoterror, you are just overspewing with superior opinions about every single topic on the planet! What a wonderful gift to humanity you must consider yourself. You have been so generous with your magnificent knowledge about everything, you can now rest your fevered fingers. We all now know everything, too, thanks to you. You've covered it all! Thanks!
#8 Posted by judicious on April 1, 2008 at 7 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I am sick of hearing about Ava Maria. It's a pediphile pool of sickness.
#9 Posted by miamigal on April 1, 2008 at 7 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Does anyone really think god cares about all this blessing and incence burning over one building way out in a swamp?
#10 Posted by woods311 on April 1, 2008 at 7:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
woods311...I think (god) would have rather had his ecosystem left alone.
#11 Posted by eltuna on April 1, 2008 at 8:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
As far as the environment goes, there was no way that this land was going back to nature. It was about as likely as D.C. being returned to swampland or trading back New York City for a fist full of shiny wampam. So, what have we got? The county is in line to receive millions over the years from residential and commercial taxes for next to nothing in return. The county has to pay for widening Oil Well, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to what it will receive in return. Most, if not all of Ave Maria's infrastructure was paid for by a bond issue which is being repaid by the residents in a special added tax for them alone. When this was all tomato fields the county got very little in taxes out of it. As far as the environment goes it is a win there as well. Residential land use is much more friendly to the water table than agricultural land use. Because of Ave Maria there is now a fraction of the fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides coming out of the same land. The developer has also agreed to restoring as much as 17000 acres to wetlands. Everybody wins. Quit griping. If you don't live here and don't pay the additional taxes that I gladly pay for a safe, clean community then you can sit back and enjoy all those added tax dollars we send you.
I am not even Catholic and the uberreligious do get annoying at times, but like I have said before when I lived in North Georgia it was an insult if you weren't invited to church at least 3 times a week. This is nothing.
#12 Posted by avemariadawg on April 1, 2008 at 8:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
who cares, why do you all care. it only affects you if you belong to the Ave Maria Church
#13 Posted by NeezDutz on April 1, 2008 at 9:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you to all who posted here. You are ALL welcome to visit the church. God Bless and keep you, and good luck to the parishioners of Ave Maria. See you next Sunday.
#14 Posted by LosBombero on April 1, 2008 at 9:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What was once tomato land,
Is presently a tax free scam
Notre Dame for education
Ave Maria for fundamentalism
Pizza Hut for party feast
Domino's for air and yeast
Mormons have their Utah plot
Monaghan built a large Pope's hat
If you pray over your plate
Give thanks... for Separation of Church and State
#15 Posted by prometheus on April 1, 2008 at 11:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
prometheus...if it wasn't for the churches doing the good they do with charities and looking after the poor and disenfranchised the "state" would have to take more of your money to look after these obligations...so you see the state gives all places of worship tax free status so you can horde your wealth and post insulting statements under this circumstance the state is not separate from religion
#16 Posted by Canuck on April 1, 2008 at 12:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Canuck...we'd have to do the math...all the tax free church hording of property, cash, securities, art etc. weath (minus 1 billon cash to payments to priest pedophile victims) v.s. aid to the poor...
hmmmm...looking at the poor in third world countries, and the churchs still collecting money from them, 30 million on food stamps in America..I think the Catholic churches (and all the rest) come out on the greedy end of the stick...the oath of poverty for priest is a farce...priests, cardinals, and bishops and America CEO's are all aboard the same greed and power ship...the church doctrine against birth control is in itself a crime against humanity and the planet...
institutions like St. Judes Children hospital are good institutions, and there are some fine schools like Notre Dame, but the power and CEO structure of the Catholic Church is filled with delusional power and weath horders
While I work on the math, try to figure out why the church has been such a haven for pedophiles and show how the priests have stopped the abuse around the rest of the world...
"so you can horde your wealth" LOL
#17 Posted by prometheus on April 1, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
#18 Posted by nonesense08 on April 1, 2008 at 2:28 p.m.
"why the church is such a haven for pedophiles"
that statement alone shows you are ignorant of the facts and just wish to bash the Catholic church...less than 1% of the clergy have been accused..and less than that convicted...and you say "a haven".....when you have credits about what you are doing to better the environment and your fellow citizens..then you MAY have some right to criticize others...but right now you come off as a bigoted and bitter person hiding under the anonymity of this forum
#19 Posted by Canuck on April 1, 2008 at 2:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Canuck...the figure is at least 4% of priest are pedophiles...a figure higher than that of any other public or private organization in America...the bashers of the Catholic church are the pedophile priests who've already cost the chuch over ONE BILLION dollars in settlements for their abuse and evil actions.
US clerics accused of abuse from 1950-2002: 4,392.
About 4% of the 109,694 serving during those 52 years.
Individuals making accusations: 10,667.
Victims' ages: 5.8% under 7; 16% ages 8-10; 50.9% ages 11-14; 27.3% ages 15-17.
Victims' gender: 81% male, 19% female
Duration of abuse: Among victims, 38.4% said all incidents occurred within one year; 21.8% said one to two years; 28%, two to four years; 11.8% longer.
Victims per priest: 55.7% with one victim; 26.9% with two or three; 13.9% with four to nine; 3.5% with 10 or more (these 149 priests caused 27% of allegations).
Abuse locations: 40.9% at priest's residence; 16.3% in church; 42.8% elsewhere.
http://www.priestsofdarkness.com/stat...
bitter and bigoted,..hardly...St. Judes Children Hopital recieves the largest portion of my charity donations...and Notre Dame is a great school...
so what is it I take issue with...Pedophile priests and Fundamentalist religious organizations of any ilk, such as Ave Maria.
#20 Posted by prometheus on April 1, 2008 at 7:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Canuck...The Catholic church in America is in drastic decline. The percentage of Catholics who say they attend Mass every week is steadily declining. I have a cousin by marriage who is a Catholic priest. He says the vast majority of priests are gay and recruiting priests is a major problem.
1987 44%
1993 41%
1999 37%
2005 33%
at this rate there will be no catholics attending mass regularly in 2049
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion...
Don't ya think the pedophile priest scandal and the dark ages approach to birth control for the declining popularity?
#21 Posted by prometheus on April 1, 2008 at 8:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It was nice but not as nice as an old fashioned clown mass!
Corp media, the more they know the less they print.
#22 Posted by Ramble on April 1, 2008 at 9 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Someday, will this structure be thought of in the same way the Golden Dome is in Notre Dame? Isn't that the real goal?
#23 Posted by BlueTonguedVole on April 1, 2008 at 9:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yee Gods, YeOlde I see you are still at it again bigot-bashing.
Your JOY is totally misdirected.
The issue,I remind you again,is not about the dedication of a Roman Catholic Church,chapel,oratory,quasi-parish-you name it.
It is about a Pizza Pope constructing a building in his honor and glory and founding a fundamentalist uber-religious "pizza cult" in the "Catholic tradition" (his words)- a few jumps from the Catholic religion.
Align this with the extraordinary agreement with Collier Development and the inordinate coverage by the NDN and you have a political,marketing game that reflects the same antics he pulled in Michigan.
Nothing but a huge birthday party for Monaghan and an expression of his "faith" and funds in a $24 million dollar building that is coincidentally logo connected to all of his advertising campaign.
No bigot here..just a realistic observer of the game.
#24 Posted by LooLooney on April 4, 2008 at 7:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Some friendly advice. Just don't drink the punch.
#25 Posted by Jadip811 on April 4, 2008 at 8:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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