Division between liberal and conservative Catholics in America is just one of the things that bothers the 73-year-old Monaghan about the Church today.

“Sure it (division in the Church) bothers me,” Monaghan told The Catholic Register while visiting Toronto May 11 to speak to members of Legatus, the organization of Catholic business leaders he started. “It’s something that didn’t seem to happen in the ’40s and ’50s.”

Monaghan is convinced his side is winning.

“It’s almost like, in a sense, you had no religion with the so-called liberals. And the orthodox have lived the faith, believed the faith and they’re growing. The ones who don’t believe anything, they’re fading away. A lot of their leadership is gone. The new bishops are stronger and more orthodox,” he said. “I would think we are gaining more.”

Monaghan has a 70-year plan to remake American Catholicism, all centred on Ave Maria University in Florida. Monaghan is chancellor and principal benefactor of the university, which anchors a vast real estate development constituting the town of Ave Maria in south-central Florida.

Under Monaghan’s plan, the seven-year-old university with more than 700 students will by 2077 produce 4,000 priests — “good priests” — 2,500 nuns, 400 “top notch” theologians, 8,000 teachers for U.S. Catholic schools, 1,500 school principals and 40,000 “strong Catholic marriages” which will in turn produce 150,000 children and 500,000 grandchildren.

“That’s just the beginning,” said Monaghan. “The payoff will be the influence we will have had on the other 200-and-some Catholic, so-called Catholic, schools in the country. Hopefully we can be a beacon to bring them back to their roots. This one little mustard seed we’ve planted can produce not just a big bush but a whole forest of bushes.”

Ave Maria University is hoping to be fully accredited by December this year.

Monaghan wants to leverage Ave Maria University to create and encourage more new Catholic colleges with restorationist, anti-liberal agendas. He cites Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay, Ont., as one example. The liberal arts college in Barry’s Bay has 75 students and cannot grant degrees, but some of its students have transferred to Ave Maria to pursue four-year degrees.

Monaghan believes one of his other projects, the Legatus network of Catholic business leaders, can help with founding and funding two-year liberal arts colleges. Monaghan calculates a small college can be founded with between $200,000 and $300,000. Operating the college would require another $200,000 a year beyond tuition fees, he said.

“We can help start schools like that in the future. I mean my background is franchising. I think there’s a place for two-year schools. Particularly in this economy,” he said.