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 A