American Politics Are a Nightmare for Catholic Universities

AVE MARIA, Florida—In this enclave in Southwest Florida, the lush, pruned golf course and ritzy subdivisions are eclipsed only by the magnificent church that marks the town’s distinctive Catholic character. The town is also home to a similarly named religious institution, Ave Maria University, which was founded in 2003. The institution—and the master-planned community in which it is now located—is the brainchild of Tom Monaghan, the billionaire founder of Domino’s, who is originally from Michigan and known for his Catholic philanthropy.

Ave Maria is still in its infancy compared with the big names in Catholic higher education. But Monaghan has a vision. He wants to build a campus that is than the Notre Dames of the world, and this patch of Florida, he decided, was the right location for that. The secluded community feels less like the rest of the state and more like a paradise for those who want to live faithfully. One student, Anne Marie Schlueter, a sophomore, told me the institution’s mission of faith-driven education drew her here from Ohio; it was a university where she could build a strong Catholic foundation with which to answer critical questions about the world. But the young institution still