Among the posts observed by the Atlantic are "illustrations of his favorite Catholic saints, clergy, and influencers toting AR-15-style rifles labeled sanctum rosarium alongside violently homophobic screeds that are celebrated by social-media accounts with thousands of followers."
"In mainstream Catholicism, the rosary-as-weapon is not an intrinsically harmful interpretation of the sacramental," the magazine stressed, adding though, these social media posts act as a "diffusion of such messaging" that helps "to integrate ultraconservative Catholicism with other aspects of online far-right culture."
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According to the Atlantic, "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."
Many social media accounts belonging to radical-traditional Catholics stress memes showing armed gunmen wearing balaclavas, information on tactical training, and some online stores offering rosaries made of bullet cartridge casings. Furthermore, the Atlantic reports that "Rad-trad networks are also involved in organizing rosary-branded events that involve weapons training."
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Conservative outlets have slammed the Atlantic's reporting on the issue. The National Review released an article titled, "The Atlantic: Rosaries Are Worse Than Firebombings," and Fox News co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed, "Christianity and faith in general is under attack" in response to the article.
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It would be hard to discover proof more culpable of the worldview of the editors of the Atlantic than the decision to run these two articles two days apart: Kaitlyn Tiffany on “The Right’s New Bogeyman: A mysterious pro-abortion-rights group is claiming credit for acts of vandalism around the country, and right-wing activists and politicians are eating it up” and Daniel Panneton on “How Extremist Gun Culture Co-Opted the Rosary: The AR-15 is a sacred object among Christian nationalists. Now ‘radical-traditional’ Catholics are bringing a sacrament of their own to the movement.” Read one after another, they totally describe an asymmetrical threat review, in which “our” people are never evil, but “their” people are to be regarded with constant suspicion. In this perspective, even actual terrorism by people on the cultural left is perilous only because it helps conservatives politically, while even the slightest hint of association with the smallest number of extremists is sufficient to justify denouncing a core Catholic devotional prayer.
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