Ave Sharia

Ave Maria, Florida’s own gated city of God which was well-profiled in The Boston Phoenix last summer, is running into interference from civil liberties groups who oppose Domino’s Pizza tycoon Thomas S. Monaghan’s plans to build a Catholic utopia that keeps the vices of modern society outside town limits: pharmacies will not supply condoms, birth control pills or pornography, and television stations will go fuzzy on the soft-porn channels. Monaghan, who minces no words about his mission, explains that his $250 million planned township (which will include the country’s largest crucifix at a towering 65 feet) is, like history, part of “‘one big battle between good and evil,'” at which he doesn’t “‘want to be on the sidelines.'”