There is a place in Florida that is being built with money you may have paid for a pizza that you had once delivered to your home. Not the tip, the money for the pizza.

This spot in Florida is the state’s newest town, Ave Maria, which Tom Monaghan is building on 5,000 acres in a former tomato field on the edge of the Everglades northeast of Naples, just a few miles from Immokalee. He hopes the city, which emphasizes family values, will eventually have 30,000 residents.

You may not recognize the name of this man who has been dubbed the ‘Pizza Pope’ in the British press. But you’ll recognize what made it famous: Domino’s Pizza. And outside of Rome, it would be difficult to find a more devout Catholic. Some would say ‘rabid’ or ‘fanatic’, but that’s getting ahead of the story.

Tom Monaghan’s story is a typical Horatio Alger story:

• The father died of ulcers at age 29 when Tom was 4.
• His mother took him to a Michigan orphanage run by Polish Catholic nuns, where his devotion to Catholicism became an obsession.
• As a freshman in high school, he decided to become a priest, but a year later he was expelled from the seminary, for pillow fights, among other things.
• Back in public high school, he graduated 44th out of a class of 44. But his yearbook photo has this caption: ‘The more I try to be good, the worse I get; but I can still do something great.
• He dreamed of being an architect like his idol, Frank Lloyd Wright, but his poor grades and lack of money ruled him out.
• So in 1956 he joined the Marine Corps, served three years, and hitchhiked from San Diego back to Ypsilanti, MI, with only $ 15 in his pocket.
• He enrolled in college six times, but became no more than a freshman.
• In 1960, when he was 23 years old, he and his brother borrowed $ 900 and bought their first pizza place in Ypsilanti, near the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a hotbed of pizza lovers. At first, he had his choice of home cooking: pizza, pizza, or pizza. Later extras were added.
• And yes, in that first year he delivered his own pizzas. In fact, he met his wife while delivering him a pizza.

And as they say, the rest is history. As Domino’s grew, Monaghan’s wealthy grew, despite many obstacles. “I don’t think anyone in business had a tougher time than me,” he recalls now. ‘My faith sustained me.’

And he acted like a rich man. “I went overboard” buying worldly things, he says. It began with his 1983 purchase of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. The team won the World Series the following year, prompting the publication of their 1986 autobiography “Pizza Tiger.” He also bought collections of cars and buildings from Frank Lloyd Wright.

That was the time when he became ultra-active in Catholic education, including pro-life causes that led to pickets at his Ann Arbor stores, and decided that the reason God put him on Earth was to bring the people to heaven. Sold the Tigers. And finally, in 1998, he sold Domino’s for a billion dollars.

Since then, his outspoken views have dogged his proselytizing efforts. He has become the lightning rod for all manner of controversies, including pro-life causes and opposition to homosexuality. Outwardly, it doesn’t seem to bother him.

In addition, his Ave María project has not escaped controversy. What sparked the controversy here were his statements early on that ‘there will be no pornographic television in Ave Maria Town’ and (paraphrasing) there will also be no contraceptives or adult magazines in pharmacies. He had to dance around those statements, finally admitting that such products will not be banned.

So what led him to establish not only a pro-life community near Naples, but also the first Catholic university built in the United States in 50 years, one that he hopes will one day rival Notre Dame?

In short, Ann Arbor politicians rejected his plans to build the university there. Rural Collier County, with a more conservative population more likely to accept his views on life’s purpose (he hoped), seemed like a more likely place, a place in Florida he was familiar with.

The economic climate has slowed construction in Ave Maria, but progress remains impressive. There is already the new $ 240 million Ave Maria University, which opened in 2007, hoping to attract 5,000 students. You now have 600.

Dominating the landscape is a $ 24 million, 60,000-square-foot, 10-story steel and stone church with glass arches. It has the largest stained glass crucifix in the country, one with a 60-foot-tall bleeding Jesus. And 1,100 seats, making it one of the largest Catholic churches in America.

By building the Hail Mary, Monaghan is obviously trying to use his millions to pave his way to heaven and that of others. “I want to go to heaven and take as many people as I can,” he says. ‘I don’t want to go to hell.