Near the magnificent new church on the Ave Maria University campus, sculptor Marton Varo chips away at 80 tons of the best white marble money can buy, direct from the same Italian quarry where Michelangelo used to get his.
The $3 million, 35-foot-tall bas-relief sculpture depicts The Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary she will bear the son of God. The work will someday adorn the facade of the 10-story Ave Maria Oratory, around which a modern campus and college town have materialized in quick time on the edge of the Florida Everglades.
The recession has a stranglehold on much of southwest Florida, but billionaire Thomas Monaghan’s vision for the 1,100-seat church and the Roman Catholic school he created continues to take shape, even if construction isn’t progressing as quickly as he had hoped.
I love the sheer audacity of this grand project. Thomas Monaghan is a true entrepeneur. Not content with merely starting a pizza company and gradually building it into a billion-dollar business in a highly competitive field, he now dreams big dreams about founding a truly Catholic university and growing it from scratch too. After all, he could’ve given his millions to Notre Dame or Georgetown or any number of other RC schools, but he preferred to start one himself.
I salute that kind of courage, vision, and (not least) faith. Bravo.
Now if only we could find a similar benefactor to start a truly Anglican college or seminary…
David Handy+