Wednesday, March 01, 2023

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Be careful what you wish for. First: does "extremist Catholics" mean "ultramontane Catholics"? Second: does the Senator imagine the Latin Mass is a) widely practiced after Vatican II? and b) closed to people who can't produce the correct Catholic ID? Because unless things have changed radically (and they may have, but not in that direction), the only Latin Mass I know of in Missouri was conducted in St. Louis by a small congregation with either special dispensation or in defiance of the Bishop of Rome.

It may be the Senator is not limiting his concerns to his home state, I do understand.  But when I was in seminary in St. Louis, a classmate and I attended a Latin mass as part of a course on liturgy and a project of experiencing worship outside our own backgrounds/comfort zones.  We attended "the" Black Baptist church in the course of our semester's Sunday peregrinations.  It was not only lively and inspiring, it was the only church service I've ever attended where someone had to go to the microphone and ask the departing worshippers to leave a bit more quickly, as the next service started in 10 minutes and those people couldn't get in!  They were also the loveliest, kindest people because we were the only two white faces in a literal sea of black ones.  I know for a fact that when the reverse is true the congregation is not as hospitable.  But I digress...

We looked for a Roman mass to attend, and couldn't pass the chance of attending a Latin Mass.  I think it was authorized, rather than distaff, but it was hardly a clandestine meeting with secret passwords (in Latin, of course) in order to get in.  So I'm not sure what the Senator means by "sources inside Latin Masses."  Does he mean FBI agents questioning attendees?  Attending themselves, as visitors?  They are public services.  If you suspect people of criminal activity, you'd best send a Latin speaker along.  My friend and I had no idea what was going on, and I suspect most of the congregation were just following a well-ingrained ritual without much comprehension of the language it was conducted in.  I mean no slight, I just don't think they were following closely along to be sure the priest got the words right, becuase they probably didn't know much, if any, of the words.  It's a little tougher to follow the Latin (or even original koine Greek) than the King James Version, after all.  The syntax of English, even early modern English, for one thing, is not the syntax of Latin.

But again, I digress....

Anyhoo, plug "fbi latin mass" into Google, and you get a slew of right wing outlets complaining about an FBI memo regarding "radical traditional Catholics."   

According to the leaked FBI memo, “radical-traditional” Catholics who are interested in the Traditional Latin Mass are likely to have ties to “the far-right white nationalist movement.”

Which, to be honest, makes sense to me.  I attended that Latin Mass decades ago, but the crowd was extremely white and extremely conservative in appearance, right down to a family near us in a pew who fit the stereotype of a "traditional Catholic family" so tightly it was a visual cliche.  Reading down the row left to right:  Dad, Mom, and several children in declining heights/ages, the woman all wearing a head covering reminiscent of Sunday dress in the 1950's (this was the mid '90's), and giving off a very bad vibe toward my friend, who although female was bare headed. I don't think they'd have liked it that she wasn't my wife, either (just on the issue of being in their Mass with a woman not my wife, I mean). Not a terribly hospitable congregation, all in all.

I know nothing about this matter, except that when Fox News describes it in terms of "purported," you get the feeling there's less here than meets the eye, and the provenance of the memo itself is subject to question:

Former FBI special agent and federal whistleblower Kyle Seraphin reportedly obtained a leaked FBI document that outlines a plan to spy on a segment of one of America’s biggest religious denominations.

"The FBI’s Richmond Division would like to protect Virginians from the threat of ‘white supremacy,’ which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass," Seraphin reported for Uncover DC. "An intelligence analyst within the Richmond Field Office of the FBI released in a new finished intelligence product dated January 23, 2023, on Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE) and their interests in ‘Radical-Traditionalist Catholics’ or RTCs."

He added that the document "assesses with ‘high confidence’ the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church."

I don't doubt the FBI would conduct such an investigation, or even think it had grounds to.  Given the investigations revealed by the Church Committee, I don't put anything past the FBI, and don't think all of it is justified.  I do think the "sources" they are interested in (if at all) are not just pew sitters during the Mass. 

It's also, as used by Sen. Hawley here, just an excuse to sling poo and get on TeeVee tonight (or on Twitter, which would be better):

Here's where I remember Senators have been engaging in performative outrage since cameras came into Senate hearings.  That's been quite a long time, now.  

And this is why I'm not entirely on-side that the FBI memo says what its critics wanted it to say:

Because most of this is, as the kids say now, performative:

Yeah, you get the idea.

I must admit, it'd be nice for someone to report on what the Democrats are doing in this hearing.
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