House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas FBI Director Over Agency Efforts To Target ‘Radical-Traditionalist’ Catholics

Congress will soon hear from the FBI director, Christopher Wray, on the details of a leaked document from the bureau’s Richmond field office advocating for the infiltration and development of sources within Catholic groups in the United States to ferret out “radical traditionalist” ideology in the faith. “Although the FBI claims to have ‘numerous’ and ‘rigorous’ policies to protect First Amendment rights, the FBI’s Richmond document plainly undercuts these assertions,” the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, announced in a statement. The deadline for both documents and Mr. Wray’s testimony is April 28. The subpoena states that the FBI has produced “substandard” information since the committee first requested documents about the leaked memo in February. “This information is outrageous and only reinforces the Committee’s need for all FBI material responsive to our request,” Mr. Jordan said. “The documents produced to date show how the FBI sought to enlist Catholic houses of worship as potential sources to monitor and report on their parishioners.”The committee previously requested documents related to the case, but Mr. Jordan claimed his committee only received “limited information.” The subpoena claims that the FBI had “at least one undercover agent” involved in the operation. The memo, published on February 8, recommended that the FBI develop sources within Catholic churches to find “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” who adhere to “radical-traditionalist” ideology. The memo says that the term “radical-traditionalist Catholics” refers to those who “reject the Second Vatican Council,” which held — among other pronouncements — that Mass could be performed in languages other than Latin. Pope Francis said last year a group that rejects the Second Vatican Council “longs for a bygone world” and engages in “selfishness that puts our own tastes and plans above the love that pleases God.” At the time of the document’s publication, a staff member of the Judiciary Committee’s select weaponization subcommittee — which Mr. Jordan also leads — was looking into the memo. The judiciary committee requested documents from the FBI five days later. Surveilling and infiltrating these groups, the FBI said, will be especially important in “run-up to the next general election cycle,” as social issues become more salient during presidential campaigns. The memo recommended developing “sources” within the groups in the next “12 to 24 months.” A former special agent, Kyle Seraphin, posted the memo to a whistleblower website, UncoveredDC, after which the FBI disavowed the material. A spokesman for the agency told the Daily Caller it did “not meet the exacting standards of the FBI.”When asked about the memo at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in March, Mr. Wray disavowed the document, saying it did not reflect the FBI’s “standards.”The memo cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as identifying nine Catholic “hate groups” that should be of concern to the agency. The groups listed include Catholic newsletters and advocacy groups from across the country.The document says the FBI became more aware of these “radical” Catholics as the Supreme Court considered overturning Roe v. Wade in 2021 and 2022. “The ongoing convergence of the far-right white nationalist movement and Radical-Traditionalist Catholics was further demonstrated through the increase in hostility toward abortion-rights advocates on social media sites in the run-up to and aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision,” the memo says. “We do not and will not target people for religious beliefs, and we do not and will not monitor people’s religious practices,” Mr. Wray told senators on March 8. “That’s not acceptable.”

House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas FBI Director Over Agency Efforts To Target ‘Radical-Traditionalist’ Catholics

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