It was an unlikely place for a Catholic bookstore. At the edge of a large pasture north of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was a 2/3 mile long business center named Domino’s Farms, built as the headquarters of the well-known pizza company. Unusual for a commercial building, its lobby featured  a Catholic Bookstore with a large array of religious table and wall art, beautifully crafted statues of the Blessed Virgin, St. Michael the Archangel, and Joan of Arc. These were flanked by row after row of religious books, focused largely on inspirational saints, Christian virtue and devotional life. It reflected a distinct style of Catholicism, rich in piety and narrow in breadth. There was almost no presence of Vatican II, liturgy, Church history, or social justice.  Out of thousands of titles on the shelves, only six dealt with Pope Francis. Like everything else about Domino’s Farms, the store’s devotional focus bore the unmistakable imprint of Tom Monaghan: a man of a simple faith who has exerted a powerful influence on the spirituality of many American Catholics.

Now in his 90th year, Tom Monaghan is a man of mild manners and a ready smile who is hard not to like. Born in poverty in a rural Michigan home, he lost his father at the age of 4 and most of his boyhood years were spent in a Catholic orphanage. Tom became an altar boy in the second grade and later acknowledged “that religion was the one thread of community in my life.”  A desire to become a priest led him to enter a high school seminary where he lasted one year before being expelled for disciplinary reasons. Unable to afford college, he served in the US Marine Corps for 3 years, emerging as a hard-driving, no-nonsense entrepreneur who parlayed a small pizza operation known as Domino’s into a chain with over 5000 franchises.

But there was another side to the man. In 1987, a profound religious experience induced him to sell off what he described as his “toys” in the form of several yachts, a large number of classic cars, and a helicopter, and his ownership of the Detroit Tigers baseball team. In their place, he began channeling his wealth into Catholic education, radio and television. He  bankrolled the EWTN Catholic television network when it was still operating from a garage in Tennessee. In 1996, he established Ave Maria Radio station whose programs today are carried by 150 Catholic radio outlets. In the late 1990s he also established a small Catholic college, that a decade later became known as Ave Maria University, relocated to Southwest Florida today one of the leading centers of conservative Catholic higher learning in America.

Inevitably, Tom became well known in church circles. Many of his wealthy Catholic friends have absorbed themselves in contentious ecclesial and political causes. Monaghan  has followed a more spiritual course, investing his energies in Legatus, an international organization for Catholic business leaders that he founded  in 1987. Today this movement, headquartered at Domino’s Farms, has more than 5000 members divided into 96 chapters in 37 states, Canada and Mexico. Members gather monthly for Mass, a dinner, and round table discussion on bringing Catholic values to the business world, and are pledged to observe the “Tres Magna,” the three “Great Things”: daily Mass, the daily recitation of the rosary, and monthly confession.

A short distance from the bookstore was the entry to a chapel where a handful of men and woman stood silently in line awaiting their turn for confession. As we entered, the rosary was being recited. We took seats on a side bench and prayed the final two decades of the rosary  followed by a series of prayers to the Blessed Mother, St. Michael the Archangels, Guardian Angels and various saints. Four Masses a day were offered here for the convenience of visitors interspersed with times for Confession.

In assessing the life and work of  Tom Monaghan, the prayer and worship found in the little chapel at Domino’s Farms brings us as close as we could get to a man whose single goal  is “to die in a state of sanctifying grace…and  lead as many other souls to heaven as possible.” One could ask for nothing more.