Last Updated on August 16, 2022
Daniel Panneton wrote an article in The Atlantic which called the Catholic rosary a “symbol” of religious radicalism.
The Atlantic hit piece, titled “How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol”, describes in a negative light, the rise of Catholic media groups or figures who “actively” campaign “against LGBTQ acceptance in the Church,” and other progressive issues in American society.
Panneton explained that these traditional Catholics on social media were radical because of so-called “extremist homophobic and transphobic “groomer” discourse.”
The far-Left Atlantic also mocked the idea of “rosary-branded events.” Panneton wrote, “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.
The basic beliefs of Catholicism are evidence of “extremism” amongst politically active Catholics, according to Panneton.
The author hit back on traditional views of masculinity, grounded in the Catholic faith. “The militarism also glorifies a warrior mentality and notions of manliness and male strength. This conflation of the masculine and the military is rooted in wider anxieties about Catholic manhood.”
“But among radical-traditional Catholic men, such concerns take an extremist turn, rooted in fantasies of violently defending one’s family and church from marauders,” he added.
After attacking the Catholic religion’s views on homosexuality, transgender issues, pedophilia, and masculinity, the Atlantic went on to suggest the Church’s pro-life advocacy tied them to far-right extremism.
“The convergence within Christian nationalism is cemented in common causes such as hostility toward abortion-rights advocates,” Panneton claimed.
Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, OP, a Dominican priest of the Province of St. Joseph, told Catholic News Agency that the Atlantic piece was “classic misdirection.”
“The author takes what are basic Catholic positions on the nature of the Church, Christian morality, and the like, and posit that they are somehow ‘extremist.’ This is classic misdirection.”
CatholicVote, a Catholic super PAC and advocacy group, slammed the Atlantic for publishing “an attack on any religion’s sacred objects.”
In a response published here, CatholicVote’s Erika Ahern said:
“Panneton is not a serious journalist, but he is a serious propagandist, teaching his readers to glance fearfully at the friar with a Rosary on his belt or cast a suspicious eye on the family out for a walk with their Rosaries. They are, after all, potential terrorists.
In publishing Panneton’s piece, The Atlantic editors chose to lend a veneer of respectability to America’s last acceptable bigotry, anti-Catholicism.”
Stay tuned to National File for any updates.
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