Hail Mary, Lock And Load…

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – Okay, by now everyone has heard about The Atlantic’s Daniel Panneton’s not-so ridiculous claim that “radical-traditional” Catholics — who I guess I would include myself in that — see the rosary as some type of secular weapon to fight the deadly beast.

Well, sorry to upset Mr. Panneton’s big discovery, but the simple fact is that it is not only a weapon, it is the singularly most powerful weapon in the Catholic arsenal against the forces of Hell. The problem with Mr. Panneton’s thesis is not that he sees the rosary as a weapon, which it is, but that he misinterprets what the Church means by that reference and all references to spiritual battle.

Here is how he started his column in mocking fashion:

“Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or ‘rad trad’) Catholics. On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.”

Just parenthetically, notice his use of the term “radical-traditional Catholics,” which he mocks with the term “rad-trad” which he sprinkles throughout his over-the-top missive. It is a pejorative term used by modernist and liberals to the growing contingent of conservatives in our midst, many of whom are dedicated adherents of the Latin Mass.

Mr. Panneton’s bigoted, journalistic twaddle races around the political and theological landscape making one ridiculous claim after another by using dozens of non sequiturs, exaggerations, and distortions to make his point: that radical traditional Catholics not only dream of a spiritual war against the powers and principalities arrayed against our Heavenly Father, but pray for a physical war as well.

He misinterprets, deliberately perhaps, images of war used to illustrate the battles between good and evil as a call to physical violence, such as Psalm 144 which praises the Lord who “trains my hands for battle,” missing entirely the point that while much of biblical history involves the safeguarding of the Jewish people by military means, it is a metaphor for our spiritual battles against the ancient enemy. He posits, “These rad-trad rosary-as-weapon memes represent a social-media diffusion of such messaging, and they work to integrate ultraconservative Catholicism with other aspects of online far-right culture.”

He continually uses pejorative terms to describe these rad-trads — you know the ones, they cling to their bibles and guns — “Catholic cyber-militant,” “masculinist anxieties,” using “combat rosaries,” and “battle beads,” who glorify “a warrior mentality and notions of manliness and male strength” and have “anxieties about Catholic manhood,” all coupled with the concept of “righteous violence.” Apparently all done under the tutelage of the Blessed Virgin herself.

Just to show how dishonest this argument is, the “combat rosaries” mentioned were in reference to the rosaries given to American Catholic soldiers during World War I which were being displayed and reproductive souvenirs were being sold in a wartime museum. Of course, Mr. Panneton’s understanding is a bit different, “This conflation of the masculine and the military is rooted in wider anxieties about Catholic manhood.”

In that vein he writes, “The rosary-as-weapon also gives rad-trad Catholic men both a distinctive signifier within Christian nationalism and a sort of membership pass to the movement….Today, Catholics are a growing contingent of Christian nationalism.”

He also suggests that this “militia culture” and “masculinist anxieties” have become mainstream for the rad-trads where they have taken up residence. He writes, “Their social-media accounts commonly promote accelerationist and survivalist content, along with combat-medical and tactical training, as well as memes depicting balaclava-clad gunmen that draw on the ‘terrorwave’ or ‘warcore’ aesthetic that is popular in far-right circles.”

I think you get the picture here. He seems to take every crackpot notion ever expressed, as well as the distortions of legitimate teachings of the Church and he uses them to smear those Catholics who actually follow the true teachings of the Church. And in doing so he has tried to cast those conservative voices as part of a great conspiracy of radicals who not only oppose abortion and transgenderism, but who also approve of the use of violence against them and have insecurities with their own manhood.

I might suggest where Mr. Panneton got some of his ideas. Like many liberals he seems to be trapped in a continuing relationship with hate. He is the manager of the Online Hate Research and Education Project for the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto, Canada.

I suppose that might be understood in the context of a mixed-up individual who is unable to see clearly into things he does not understand, nor wishes to, but the conduct of The Atlantic is more problematic. Its embrace of Mr. Panneton’s claims of violence is beyond the pale, a farce of journalistic malpractice.

The suggestion of violence is most concerning, and to its (dis)credit The Atlantic featured images of bullet holes around the article in its published version, suggesting, perhaps, that like much of the media it not only abhors conservative religious values and views those adherents as simply evil and deserving of the rewards of cancel culture: a quick dismissal to political and social limbo, a modern leprosy den where they can no longer infect the enlightened and true believers left behind.

This, of course, reminds me of the anti-Catholicism I saw growing up as a boy when John F. Kennedy was running for president in the late 1950s and early 1960s. People seemed to believe the strangest things about the Church, such as if Kennedy was elected, he would be controlled by the Pope and he would try to take over the U.S., canon law was confused with rule by cannons, which were found in the altar of every church just below the tabernacle that contained grenades. And, needless to say, everyone would be obliged to eat fish on Fridays.

That’s probably why one commentator suggested that Panneton’s misguided screed had “so much ignorance displayed in so few words.”
But beyond all that, the most troubling aspect of Panneton’s hit piece is perhaps his greatest omission: the figure of the Blessed Virgin and the rosary are not only a powerful weapon against the forces of evil, but they are a lifeline for millions of faithful around the world who are seeking help against the travails of our earthly existence.

Faithful around the world place themselves in their Blessed Mother’s arms each night, seeking refuge from sickness, poverty, homelessness, and despair. Each hour of the day millions of babies are placed in Mary’s care by loving mothers all over the world. Mary, for many, is the last hope and the rosary is the means by which millions throughout the ages have reached out to her.

Sure, the rosary is a powerful weapon against evil, but it is also a powerful comfort for those needing reassurance. It is the sine qua non of their faith, even of their existence.

Hail Mary, lock and load, or as I have taught my little Goddaughter: Hail Mary full of grace, punch the Devil in his face. Ahhh, what’s a Godfather for anyway?

• + + (You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)