Not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, the radical traditionalist movement, which rejects many Vatican edicts and in some cases does not even believe that Pope Benedict XVI is a valid pope, is shot through with anti-Semitism. Mel Gibson, who went on an anti-Semitic tirade this past summer after being pulled over for drunk driving, as well as his Holocaust-denying father, Hutton Gibson, are both members of this renegade Catholic movement.

The Intelligence Project's three-year investigation of this subculture found that these Catholic extremists may well represent the largest population of anti-Semites in the United States. Organized into more than a dozen organizations that the Center now designates as hate groups, radical traditionalists in the U.S. are preaching anti-Semitism to as many as 100,000 followers.

The radicals' understanding of what has gone wrong with the world boils down to a few basic things. They believe that most of the theological developments within the church since the Vatican II reforms were passed in the 1960s have been egregiously wrong, especially with regard to reconciling with Jews and the followers of other faiths. And they lament the phasing out of the Latin Mass and argue that the new Mass, preached in local dialects, does not guarantee salvation. (Radical traditionalists have almost nothing in common with traditionalist Catholics, who attend Latin Masses and support the Vatican).

An international movement, radical traditionalism is growing and spreading its anti-Semitic teachings. Some of the most extreme of the radical traditionalists are increasingly interacting with neo-Nazis and their fellow travelers. For example, John Sharpe, head of the anti-Semitic hate group Legion of St. Louis, attended the 2006 conference of American Renaissance, a racist publication that specializes in race and intelligence. That same year, Father Nicholas Gruner, leader of the International Fatima Rosary Crusade, attended a conference of The Barnes Review, a Holocaust-denial journal.

At a conference put on in Philadelphia by the hate group Catholic Family News, anti-Semitism was rife. Radical traditionalists hold several conferences a year where anti-Semitism is preached and anti-Semitic tracts, such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, are sold. The Philadelphia participants spent much of their time describing elaborate anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, in particular one that dwelled on the perils of a much-feared "Judeo-Masonic" plot. As preached that day, the alleged conspiracy involves ancient, shadowy fraternities such as the Masons, who are seen as puppets in a Jewish master plan aimed at destroying the Catholic Church.

For the vast majority of Catholics, the existence of this anti-Semitic subculture is highly distressing. The church has worked extraordinarily hard in recent decades to distance itself from anti-Semitic teachings and the idea of forcing its view of the world on unbelievers. Many Jewish and organizations from other faiths have applauded these efforts.

SPLC Report
Spring 2007