Joseph Pearce - Monaghan: A Life

W HEN I was initially commissioned by Tom Monaghan to write his biography, I will confess that I had severe misgivings. As someone who had been on the faculty of Ave Maria College from 2001 until 2004 and then on the faculty of Ave Maria University from 2004 until 2012, I felt that I was, at one and the same time, too close to the subject and yet also too far from it.

On the one hand, I owe a great personal debt of gratitude to Mr. Monaghan. If he had not started Ave Maria College, I might never have come to the United States. I might still be in my native land, an impoverished writer eking out a meager living in Englands green but infertile land. On the other hand, I experienced firsthand the growing pains at the college and university and saw many of my friends become embittered toward Mr. Monaghan as he made decisions with which they disagreed vehemently. Even today, as the dust settles on those old disputes, I suspect that some of my friends will be angered by my decision to write what will be, for the most part, a positive portrayal of a remarkable man.

While Leonard extensively documents Toms life and conducted extensive interviews with Tom and others, interviews I have made use of here, his biography is marred by a fatal flaw: a scorn for his subject and an antipathy to the Catholic faith.

Throughout its almost four hundred sprawling pages, the author makes little or no effort to either sympathize or empathize with his subject, preferring instead to sit in supercilious judgment, passing sentence on every aspect of Tom Monaghans life and beliefs. As I read this biography, I was appalled by the pride and prejudice of the author and by the catalogue of errors that protruded with irritating regularity from its pages.

Although Leonard was raised as a Catholic and educated at Catholic schools from kindergarten through high school, he lost whatever faith he had shortly after graduation. I left the Church after I graduated, Leonard writes in the preface to his book, went back after I got married, and left for good when I got divorced. After his lapse from the practice of the Faith, he claims to have read the Bible a few times, as well as the works of the Church Fathers and the Gnostic scriptures, before proceeding to read the founding documents of most of the rest of the worlds religions, and several shelves of books on religion after that (xii). These facts are presumably given to the reader to establish Leonards credentials, to let us know that he knows what hes talking about. Unfortunately, however, his book proves all too embarrassingly that he doesnt. On the very first page, he misquotes the words of the Hail Mary. In the pages that follow, he displays again and again, as others have noted, a misunderstanding of Catholic belief and practice and hostility toward Catholicism and conservatism.

Why, one might ask, have I spent time criticizing a previous biography of Tom Monaghan as a means of raising the curtain on my own? It is simply that Leonards debacle of a book served to energize my own labors. If I hadnt read his book, I would not have proceeded with the writing of mine with such a sense of passion and purpose. Few people have done more to shape the Church in the United States in the past thirty years than Tom Monaghan, and his contributions demand and deserve to be evaluated by a biographer who doesnt look upon the Faith from a perspective of ignorance and hostility. Tom Monaghan, for all his faults, does not deserve to be treated the way that Leonard treats him. This being so, Leonards must not be the last word on the subject.

Its not that I intend to counter Leonard by writing a hagiography that depicts the pizza-billionaire-turned-philanthropist as a saint, so squeaky-clean that he needs oiling! On the contrary, I made it clear to Mr. Monaghan that I was not interested in writing such a book, and for his part, he made it clear to me that this was not the sort of book that he desired to be written. With this in mind, I am reminded of Raymond Arroyos introduction to his biography of Mother Angelica, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). Although Arroyo was an employee of EWTN as well as one of Mother Angelicas closest friends and confidants, Mother was at pains that their relationship should not cloud Arroyos judgment of her flaws and weaknesses. Heres the relevant passage from Arroyos introduction:

One evening, before shooting her live show, she gave me but one instruction, which has haunted me to this day: Make sure you present the real me. There is nothing worse than a book that sugarcoats the truth and ducks the humanity of the person. I wish you forty years in purgatory if you do that!

Hoping to steer clear of that ignoble end, I have written a book that does not avoid controversy or the seeming contradictions inherent in Mother Angelicas character: the cloistered, contemplative nun who speaks to the world; the independent rule breaker who is derided as a rigid conservative; the wisecracking comedian who suffers near constant pain; the Poor Clare nun who runs a multimillion-dollar corporation.