Escape from Trad-Land

In the town of St. Mary’s, Kan., a blanket party wasn’t as exciting as it might sound. St. Mary’s is the de facto US headquarters of the Society of Saint Pius X, or SSPX, an ultra-traditionalist Catholic breakaway sect. When I lived there, a “blanket party” involved students taking peers who’d misbehaved at the town’s SSPX-run boarding school and setting them straight. The kids would be tied up and have their heads shaved. A youngster would be punished this way for infractions ranging from dozing off in church to talking to the girls after mass a bit too long. Anyone who didn’t exactly fit in with the rest of the community was suspect and could be targeted for “partying.” When I was at the boarding school, from 1987 to 1992, I participated in this cruel ritual, sanctioned by Father Ramón Angles, who at the time led the SSPX in St. Mary’s, serving as the rector of its college and secondary academy. Throughout my sophomore, junior, and senior years, I was told not only that I had permission …