Catholic-town USA, success or failure?

[DJPoopypants]

I've heard about this guy's plan, but never thought it would work. How could you possibly build a town committed to one faith in america today, what with housing discrimination rules? Or even if you build and populate it - how could they exclude other religions in the future?

Interesting article here though. It asks - what catholic is ever gonna move there anyway?

http://www.slate.com/id/2138085/

Seen in this light, Catholics may be particularly ill-suited to building a Catholic town. Often, the most observant Catholics intimately bind their piety to their culture. Italian Catholicism is very different from, say, Latin American Catholicism, with different saints' days and festivals, and both traditions might seem alien to an Irish Catholic....These affinities persist, most strongly among immigrants, who comprise an outsized share of the devout. It's hard to imagine many Nigerians or Mexicans moving to a planned community in a very white part of Florida to worship in Tom Monaghan's church....

But it's hard to envision thousands of Catholics, of all stripes, whose distress about living in a godless part of America will overwhelm their attachment to their community of worship. Like American voters who hate politicians but love their own Congress member, even disgruntled Catholics usually love their own parish.

Never thought of that. I thought their main problem would be keeping "others" out. Never thought their problem would be getting anyone in.

Any catholics you know who would go for it? Any non-elderly retirement types that would be moving to Florida/Arizona anyway?

[SoccerPro843]

Isn't Catholic a denomination of the Christian faith?

[Samarkand]

Umm, yeah.

[russ]

This is perhaps designed to attract Santorum/Brownback Catholics.

How many are there ? no idea.

BTW,Who's a bigger nutjob - Tom Monaghan or Mike Illitch?

[Dr. Wankler]

This is perhaps designed to attract Santorum/Brownback Catholics.


It's definitely designed to appeal more to the EWTN crowd than the Catholic Worker crowd, yes. As a Catholic, I don't think it's an especially good idea: it signifies giving up on the world, which isn't what the religion actually teaches.

BTW, good article: and having once lived in St. Peter, Minnesota, and taught at the college there, I can attest that this is fairly accurate:

In 19th-century Minnesota, for example, evangelical Lutherans divided into ethnic camps. The Swedes kept apart from the Norwegians, and the Germans from the Finns, even though they all practiced nearly identical faiths. Norwegians favored St. Olaf College in Northfield. Swedes went to Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter. In the 20th century, as wars pulled people off farms and younger generations left behind their parents' languages and cultures—speaking Norwegian, eating lutefisk—formerly distinct towns came to seem blandly American. Their old cultures survive only in Garrison Keillor monologues..

I would only point out, however, that the Swede/Norwegian thing was still noticeable when my wife and I left there a bit more than a decade ago.

[Riz]

This is perhaps designed to attract Santorum/Brownback Catholics.

How many are there ? no idea.

BTW,Who's a bigger nutjob - Tom Monaghan or Mike Illitch?

Agreed - and they are the minority among the Catholic population as whole.

And I say Illitch. Monaghan appears to be highly medicated and generally out of it - see also his "appearance" on the Today show to hype AveMariaville. He came off like Mr. Burns in that episode of the Simpsons where he was mistaken for an extra terrestrial.