Docs show FBI targeting of Catholics not an isolated incident

08/12/2023

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The head of America’s largest Catholic civil rights organization wants to know why federal investigators targeted traditional Catholics as “potential domestic terrorists” as newly revealed documents show that federal law enforcement’s assessment of the religious group extended beyond a “single field office” as previously assured.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, sent a public letter Thursday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, after the panel revealed Wednesday that the FBI’s Richmond Field Office “coordinated with multiple FBI field offices across the country” to produce a Jan. 23 memo which identified “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” as a potential security threat.

According to the Judiciary Committee, the new finding “contradicts [FBI Director Christopher] Wray’s July 12, 2023, testimony before the Committee, when he stated the FBI’s actions were limited to ‘a single field office.’”

The committee’s letter stated that a lesser-redacted version of what it described as the “anti-Catholic memo” provides evidence that “both FBI Portland and FBI Los Angeles field offices were involved in or contributed to the creation of FBI’s assessment of traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.”

The letter cited information contained in a report from an FBI Portland “contact with indirect access” who “informed on a deceased [Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent extremist (RMVE)] subject” who had “sought out a mainline Roman Catholic community” and then “gravitated to [Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX)].”

“It appears that both FBI Portland and FBI Los Angeles field offices were involved in or contributed to the creation of FBI’s assessment of traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists,” the letter stated.

In order to “ensure the First Amendment guarantee of free exercise of religion is protected from government overreach,” the committee asked for all documents and communications between the FBI’s Richmond and Portland field offices in regard to any information cited in the Jan. 23 memo.

The letter also asks for a “list of FBI intelligence products” such as reports and memos that reference the Jan. 23 memo, in addition to information on the placement of FBI Portland’s “liaison contact” and an undercover employee at the Los Angeles office.

The Christian Post reached out Thursday to Rep. Jordan’s office for comment. This story will be updated in the event a response is received.

In response to the Judiciary Committee’s findings, Donohue said he was “just as disturbed as you are to learn that the FBI’s probe of Catholics was never confined to one field office in Richmond.”

Donohue said the new documents “provide evidence that Wray’s comment on July 25 that the FBI’s actions were limited to ‘a single field office’ is not true.”

“This calls into question Wray’s forthrightness, and it also begs the question: What else does the FBI know about this matter?” he added. “… Given that the FBI has proven that it has not been transparent about this matter, Wray needs to explain why.”

In the FBI’s Jan. 23 Domain Perspective memo, a list of Catholic organizations attributed to Southern Poverty Law Center — which itself has a history of categorizing Christian organizations as “hate groups” — were described as “RTC (Radical-traditionalist Catholic) Hate Groups” like Catholic Family News/Catholic Family Ministries, Inc., Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire and International Fatima Rosary Crusade in Buffalo, New York.

The memo described what it called a “small minority of overall Roman Catholic adherents” as holding “disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II” and adhering to “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-[LGBT], and white supremacist ideology.”

In a statement released back in February, the FBI acknowledged the report from the Richmond office “does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI” and said steps were taken to remove the document for review.

“Upon learning of the document, FBI Headquarters quickly began taking action to remove the document from FBI systems and conduct a review of the basis for the document,” the statement reads.

“The FBI is committed to sound analytic tradecraft and to investigating and preventing acts of violence and other crimes while upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and will never conduct investigative activities or open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity.”