Bishop Robert Barron responded this week to the recent article in the Atlantic smearing the Catholic rosary as a tool for right-wing militants.
Last week, The Atlantic published an article from Daniel Panneton originally titled, “How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol,” and featured a rosary graphic made of bullet holes in place of beads while arguing that the Catholic sacramental had become a tool of violent militants.
“Militia culture, a fetishism of Western civilization, and masculinist anxieties have become mainstays of the far right in the U.S.—and rad-trad Catholics have now taken up residence in this company,” Panneton wrote.
“The phenomenon might be tempting to dismiss as mere trolling or merchandising, and ironical provocations based on traditionalist Catholic symbols do exist, but the far right’s constellations of violent, racist, and homophobic online milieus are well documented for providing a pathway to radicalization and real-world terrorist attacks,” he continued.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Bishop Barron of Word on Fire torched Panneton’s “colossally stupid” hit piece, noting how it reflects the kind of anti-Catholicism that once thrived in America.
“What was just so offensive in the article was just this insinuation that somehow the rosary, as Catholics pray it, is caught up in some sort of mindless militancy. And they use the imagery and the language of spiritual warfare, but we know what that means,” said Barron. “Spiritual warfare has got nothing to do with you guns and knives. It has to do with prayer and with fasting and with almsgiving and using spiritual weapons against dark powers both visible and invisible. It has nothing to do with right-wing or, for that matter, left-wing militant extremism. So the whole premise of the article was just ridiculous.”
Bishop Barron then reached the heart of the matter: The Atlantic and Panneton’s willingness to push the anti-Catholicism that had been a part of American history in the 19th century, often characterizing its practitioners as an invading force to be feared. It should also be noted that the Ku Klux Klan hated Catholics with the same passion and fervor as it hated black Americans.
“Behind all of this obvious silliness is an old problem in American culture, it’s deep in the American cultural DNA,” said Barron. “I’m talking about anti-Catholicism. Go back to the beginning of the republic and up into the 19th century, and often under the guise of protecting American values or protecting American nationalism or whatever it is – A deep antipathy toward the Catholic Church was on display.”
” Well, today what I find interesting, and now under the guise of woke ism, we’re now again resurrecting this old, tired anti-Catholicism,” he concluded. “So, if you wanna read the article OK, it’s out there. I wouldn’t recommend it. But I would urge all of my followers to be sensitive to this problem.”
In response to the massive backlash, the Atlantic published two headlines linking the rosary to gun extremism before finally settling on an actual photo of the rosary instead of the bullet hole rosary graphic. “How Extremist Gun Culture is Trying to Co-Opt the Rosary,” the headline now reads.
Paul Bois joined Breitbart News in the summer of 2021 after previously working as a writer for TruthRevolt and The Daily Wire. He has written thousands of news articles on a variety of topics, from current events to pop-cultural trends. Follow him on Twitter @Paulbois39
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