An ‘Extremist Symbol’

Yesterday marked the Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Naturally, the Atlantic ran a hit piece on the Rosary.

The author was Dan Panneton, an online hate researcher. In a piece originally entitled “How the Rosary Became an Extremist symbol”, he argued that the Rosary has become a symbol for physical violence and spiritual warfare and “radical-traditional Catholics”.

The idea of the Rosary as a weapon against Satan or demonic forces is an old Catholic doctrine. Panneton agrees with this. He argues that “radical-traditionalist Catholics” have appropriated the spiritual-warfare concept “literally to demonize their political opponents and regard the use of armed force against them as sanctified.” These Catholics are attempting to inflict “righteous violence on secularists, progressives or Jews,” he claims. “

His evidence of such extraordinary claims include anonymous “influencers”, and “radical traditionists”, whose social media pages display images that look like “rosaries draped above firearms.”

There’s a case to show that conservative Catholics are afflicted by American gun culture. Some are even inclined to violence. However, Pannenton claims that the Rosary was used by ultra-conservative Catholicism to integrate with “other aspects of online far right culture.” “

Remember what Panneton means when he refers to “ultraconservative Catholicism”. Panneton refers to Panneton’s belief that only Catholics adhere to “the one true Church”, the perennial teachings of the Catholic Church, as a hard-line position held by “radical Catholic men”. He explicitly and implicitly indicts Catholics who “campaign against LGBTQ acceptance in the Church” (that is, changing the Church’s 2,000-year-old teaching on sodomy), believe “other forms of Christianity are heretical,” are hostile “toward liberalism and secularism,” and “idealize the traditional patriarchal family.” Two of these four positions are the Catholic Church’s official teachings. Panneton claims that traditionalist Catholics have taken the Rosary to fulfill these ends. However, it is evident that Panneton does not like traditional Catholicism and is fond of the Rosary being associated with Catholics.

The piece does not advance an argument as much as it does a series of observations, most of which are unsubstantiated, about right-wing Catholics and their alleged sympathy for things that Panneton thinks are problematic–Christian nationalism, traditionalist Catholicism, Church teaching on sexuality, far-right politics, American gun culture, and rejection of the Second Vatican Council. Some of those things are problematic, but the issues with them have very little to do with the Rosary. It is possible that certain Catholics post photos of Rosary-draped guns on their social media profiles. However, it is unclear what this is meant to say other than to suggest that Catholics need to reconsider their relationship to firearms.

All of this is an incidental point to Panneton’s larger point which is theological.

Yet the convergence within Christian nationalism is cemented in common causes such as hostility toward abortion-rights advocates. The pro-choice protests that followed the leaked early draft of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, led to a profusion of social-media posts on the far right fantasizing about killing activists, and such forums responded to Pride month this year with extremist homophobic and transphobic “groomer” discourse. Rad-trad networks also organize rosary-branded events, which involve weapon training.

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Praying The Rosary can be associated with Catholicism. Catholics who observe the Church’s teachings are called observant Catholics. The Church opposes homosexuality and abortion. Panneton is a hate researcher and believes these positions to be unacceptable. He believes that the Rosary has been associated with those who believe in hateful views. As such, he considers the Rosary, according to his original title, to be a symbol for “extremism.” It’s not difficult.

I suspect that, for all his objections to combat rosaries and impious posts by anonymous Catholics on Twitter, Panneton’s Atlantic piece was prompted by the small armies of Rosary-wielding men praying outside of abortion clinics and defending churches from vandals in the immediate aftermath of Dobbs. Panneton considered such actions “extreme”

Indeed. Panneton used the term “extremist” four times as an epithet in his piece. Panneton should think about what the Rosary means: Catholics request the intercession from a virgin of the first century whose child, thought to be God’s son, was executed in the name of the state and buried in a grave. He will return, according to Catholics, to either eternal torment or to the forgiveness they seek. Because the Rosary and the faith that it represents attracts extremes, the Rosary is “extreme”. “