I am befuddled. Why would those who built a Catholic University and ostensibly a Catholic town to surround it, actively recruit and assist a business that performs work antithetical to Catholic teaching to the area?
That seems to be exactly what is happening. Tom Monaghan and his development partners are actively recruiting Jackson Laboratory to the surrounding area and the University leadership is assisting.
I understand that luring a large bio-tech company into the area could be a boon to the town and to the university, but at what price? Through facts dug up at AveWatch.com, I must say there is enough evidence of Jackson Laboratory’s involvement in contraceptive research and embryonic stem cell research to raise serious concerns.
Jackson Labs own website boasts of its research into “better contraceptive methods.”
These are very serious issues….
June 3, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Ave Maria University is a modernist joke. They are re-branding Catholicism to conform to their "Dominos Pizza"-style theology; quick, bland and thoroughly American (but hey, it's still pizza, right?)
All one needs do is look at the architecture of the church to see how they lean. The fact that to date there is no Tridentine liturgy there speaks volumes. Shame on them.
June 3, 2010 at 8:02 pm
My son attends AMU and serves at the TLM every Sunday. In fact, AMU gave him and 9 other young men a TLM Scholarship. That said, I absolutely do not agree with Jackson Laboratory being allowed in Ave Maria Town!
June 3, 2010 at 9:44 pm
AMU is the byproduct of a mentality forged during the height of charismatic activity in towns like Ann Arbor, Michigan. The high-handedness, the sanctimony, the conviction that "God is on our side and we can do no wrong" — all are part of the stories I hear from former students and faculty. And if you think that being a know-it-all is without its pitfalls, remember that the genius behind all this got on a TV show when the town was being planned, and bragged that they would outlaw contraception and pornography.
Hey, Tom, how's that workin' out for ya?
June 4, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Pride comes before the fall.
Lord, keep us humble.
June 16, 2010 at 7:01 am
Re: second poster. That TLM scholarship has been suspended at the end of this year I am told, for it was promised without the necessary funding. They honored them for this year (perhaps for the entire terms of those men?), but they will not continue the scholarship for the future.