A reader writes:
Sorry to bother, but I’m a bit perturbed and thought I’d pick your brain…..
Your expression “Fortress Katolicus” came to mind for me as I heard we’re going to start locking doors during Mass at my parish (one of two parishes in a town of 30k). My coworker said they’re already doing that at her hometown, population 1500 ish.
Here in South Dakota, we also apparently passed a law to make disruption of a worship service a felony. This was passed in response to the events in St Paul this winter. Our legislature has no problem MAGA virtue-signaling, but has difficulty dealing with harder problems. This crap gets my goat.
The locking doors because we imagine ourselves as a persecuted minority (despite no incidents I’m aware of) suggests to me a fear-filled church, afraid of spreading the gospel. Am I looking at it wrong? Curious to hear your thoughts.
This is ridiculous MAGA paranoia. Doors are being locked to prevent a Far Left Terrorist Attack there in that bastion of Liberalism, South Dakota?
Gimme a break.
A) It is a Catholic Church and we are to welcome people, not live in fear of our own shadow (which is literally what this is since these people are projecting their own violent, gun-worshipping ids on bogeymen in their own imaginations).
B) Domestic terror in the US is overwhelmingly white, racist, and MAGA. As in 75-80% of domestic terror. https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/119311/documents/HHRG-119-JU00-20260520-SD043.pdf
C) There is a much higher statistical likelihood that 1) some right winger in the congregation will open fire for some crazy reason or 2) you will (depending on the kind of locks you have on the doors of your church facility) be trapped inside and burn to death should somebody knock over a candle (which is basically what happened in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire).
Leviticus 26:36 warns Israel that if they are not faithful to the covenant, one of the curses they will face will be that they will panic at the sound of a leaf being driven by the wind. The MAGA antichrist cult is demonstrating the truth of this warning. They lie about their manly courage and they live in jittery, trigger-happy fear that murders their own. That’s why the Gun Cult has a staggeringly seven times higher chance of murdering a family member with the gun they believe will protect them from “intruders” who never materialize.
I would suggest trying the other parish to see if they are saner. If so, go there. If they are just as nuts, write your priest and bishop and point out the facts I note above. See if you can be an agent of sanity and change. Couldn’t hoit!
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13 Responses
I live in rural New England where half our priests are from Africa and Asia. I am FAR more concerned with ICE busting in to Mass looking for brown people than I am worried about those mean ol’ Lefties.
FWIW I think a locked door would stop ICE also. At least slow them down.
I read in the NYTimes not to long ago that a nursing Sister, from the Philippines and totally legal, was arrested on her way to morning Mass. So, right with Mark S.
If my Pastor decided to do something this stupid (unlikely where I am, they do different stupid stuff in New Jersey), I would be sorely tempted to ask him to embrace martyrdom, should it come his way, and that I would pray for the grace to do the same. It reminds me of Grade 1 at St Aedan’s. Sister told us that if the Communists ever took over, they would invade the classrooms and shoot everybody from the Principal to the janitors.
The difference being, that Russian and Chinese Communists actually did kill religious people.
Maybe two or three out of 1,000 MAGA who throw the term “communism” around could write a passable third grade short essay on what it actually means.
Fear of others is always a guaranteed way to keep us stuck in our littleness, our small egos, rather than inviting us into a mature faith that acknowledges fear but doesn’t let it run the show or have the last word.
While I’m not so sure I’ll pin this instinct solely on ‘MAGA paranoia’ (frankly, it goes back to 9/11 and is amplified by various sub-groups when they feel threatened), I do completely agree that this is absolutely horrible and needs to be faced head-on. I gave a homily that touched surprisingly closely to this a couple weeks ago with the weeds among the wheat parable. What I saw in that parable is that when we have to make tough choices between a Church that is pure wheat where we risk harming the faith overall in our attempt to be pure and one where we’re stuck with weeds all around us and the potential negative consequences of that, we should accept the risk of the weeds. I used a few examples, some where we do well and some where I’m concerned we’re not. And one of the not examples was that our parish office door is locked even when during office hours. (and to my initial point, we started doing this in ~2010-2015, well before MAGA). And of course my point was, what does it say to the world that our first instinct is to be distrustful of the people who come to our office doors?
And do to that at Mass is an order of magnitude worse. Thankfully, there’s no indication we’ll be locking our doors for Mass in my area, but I have heard rumors of it happening elsewhere. Disgusting.
I believe liability insurance is driving the bus.
To me it suggests an insular church rather than one with razed bastions
This is nothing. A lot of MAGA oriented churches are having men stand around during services with AR-15s at the ready. They call themselves “sheep dogs”.
Most of them have no credentials or training in law enforcement or security of any kind.
As to locked doors, I’m of mixed mind on that. Yeah it sort of sends the wrong message, but security problems are not entirely unrealistic. I don’t think “leftists” are the threat, but we have a lot of people with untreated mental problems and firearms in this country. It seems like some of the church attacks were carried out by congregation members or ex-members.
If you use the kind of doors with “panic bars”, you can have them locked but anyone inside can instantly pop it open in the event of a fire or other emergency.
Even the 99.9% of unexpected arrivals during Mass are somewhat disruptive. Maybe have a system where late arrivals or those not known to have business there have to come by one monitored entrance.
All it takes is one crazy person to subdue the “sheep dog”, take his weapon and open fire.
Or for the sheep dog himself to blow his cork.
All these guys with their AR-15’s. Are they compensating for some shortcoming?
Just have greeters who also double as security: A smiling face welcoming worshippers, but also armed in a concealed manner with bodycams and able to handle serious issues. Doors stay unlocked, but trouble can be handled.
Easy.
Our parish is in a small town in Ohio – the county seat. There are a lot of people with mental issues/drug abuse who wander the downtown area. We’ve had numerous instances of people wandering 8n and causing disturbances during mass. We now lock the ‘front doors’ as soon as mass begins (the ones on either side of the sanctuary) but there are signs that clearly indicate that the main doors (on Main Street) remain unlocked. There are ushers there to asses and assist late comers – no guns, etc. Just friendly faces and one entrance that can be monitored.