A week after rescinding an official bureau document claiming that some traditionalist Catholics might be “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” Congress wishes to question the FBI about the etymology of that document.
Among other things, the now discarded document claimed that traditionalist Catholics might be guilty of white supremacy and anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant ideas that the FBI’s Richmond office was afraid that they might violently act upon.
“RTCs (Radical Traditional Catholics) are typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid church council; disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II; and frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, and white supremacist ideology,” the original document stated.
After the FBI document became public, the bureau quickly took action to remove it but, of course, the real problem arises from how traditionalist Catholics became FBI targets in the first place.
Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, laid out his concerns about potential misuse of domestic violent extremism (DVE) resources against constitutionally protected religious groups in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray
“Over the last year, we have written to you several times about startling allegations that the FBI is misusing DVE resources for apparent political purposes. Since those letters, new information has become public about the FBI’s targeting of a set of Catholic Americans for their religious beliefs. We therefore write to request additional information about this serious misuse of federal law enforcement resources,” Jordan wrote.
Jordan was also concerned about the nonstandard sources the FBI’s Richmond office used to gather information on those so-called RTC groups.
“The FBI’s document cites to biased and partisan sources, including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Salon, and The Atlantic, to support its assessment,” Jordan noted. “The SPLC misleadingly defines RTCs as ‘the largest group of serious anti-Semites in America’ and believes to have identified nine RTC ‘hate groups’ across the United States.”
The letter seemed concerned with the FBI’s willingness to parrot SPLC slander against the Catholic organizations denigrated with the “hate group” moniker. “The fact that the FBI would blindly accept and regurgitate the SPLC’s spin is highly concerning and undercuts the FBI’s assertion that it is unbiased and politically neutral.”
The man who released the document to the public, former FBI Agent Kyle Seraphin, recently claimed that the SPLC in particular hasn’t always enjoyed a stellar reputation with the bureau.
“We got briefings that SPLC was not legitimate when I was at Quantico,” Seraphin told The Daily Signal.
While the FBI eventually discarded the anti-Catholic document, Jordan noted that “there remain many questions about the genesis, review, and approval of this document, as well as the FBI’s commitment to upholding First Amendment protected activity.”
Jordan demanded that the FBI provide “All documents and communications referring or relating to intelligence products about ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists’ and ‘radical-traditionalist Catholics’ for the period of January 20, 2021, to the present” — back to the day when Joe Biden took office.
In addition, the House Judiciary Committee asked that the FBI produce all documents and communications that served as the basis for the anti-Catholic document, any FBI investigations or other cooperative law enforcement agencies that may have been used to help create the report, and a list of FBI employees who contributed to the report.
Catholic organizations are troubled by the revelation of the FBI report, particularly by its reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center in creating it.
“The FBI’s partnership with a discredited left-wing activist organization directly violates agency guidelines and makes a mockery of the Department of Justice’s claims to fairly and impartially apply the law,” said Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote. “Further, the growing pattern of hostility toward Catholics by the Biden administration, from its failure to properly address violence against Catholic Churches, to the relentless persecution of innocent pro-life advocates, deserves far more scrutiny by this Congress. Retracting this memo isn’t nearly enough.”
Joe Biden has often touted his Catholic faith as the foundation for his public and political life.
In 2020 he wrote: “Throughout my career in public service, these values have kept me grounded in what matters most. As a husband, father, and grandfather, they are the cornerstone upon which our family is built. Through the pain of losing my wife, my daughter, and my son, they have sustained me with eternal hope. My faith has been a source of immeasurable solace in times of grief, and a daily inspiration to fight against the abuse of power in all its forms.”
How ironic that one such “abuse of power” is coming from the FBI — which he oversees.
