It's Worse Than They Told Us

A couple of montha ago, on February 24, I used the photo of a Stasi informant above at the top of a post covering the February 2023 leak of a memo from the FBI Richmond field office talking about the danger of traditionalist Catholics, the sort who go to Latin mass, and how they might turn into domestic terrorsts. As of March 23, the FBI issued a statement saying

that the "Domain Perspective (report) did not meet the FBI's exacting standards and was withdrawn." He added, "Upon learning of the document, FBI Headquarters removed it from our internal system. The FBI also initiated a review — which is now ongoing."

In my February 24 post, I asked,

Given this is the FBI, I'm suddenly suspicious that they say they've removed a document, but, er, have they stopped paying any informants who've been spying on Catholics suspected of attending Latin masses? They said nothing about that in their annoucement, but given that by their own admission, they had some nice lady spying on defendant Rehl's family prayer meetings without result, how do we know one or more of our own dear family friends isn't an FBI informant?

In the February coverage of the Richmond report, it was revealed that the FBI did have at least one informant infiltrating Latin masses in Virginia. It turns out that I wasn't the only person curious about how far this whole idea had gone. Via the Washington Examiner link above,

The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray over the agency's investigation into Catholic parishes in the United States.

Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) demanded that Wray testify regarding a Jan. 23 document from the Richmond Field Office. It was titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”

. . . Jordan described the [FBI's March 23] response as "substandard and partial" because it contained a significant number of redactions. He demanded full access to the documents relating to the effort, characterizing those given so far as preventing "the Committee from fully assessing the content and context of the documents and obtaining information requested from the Bureau."

Jordan quoted a passage from the Richmond document as particularly concerning. It encouraged agents to engage congregants in Catholic parishes "to enlist their assistance to serve as suspicious activity tripwires."

Although the Richmond field office document has apparently not been released and was heavily redacted in the first place, new accounts like this one at CatholicVote say

According to the limited documentation the FBI released to Congress, the FBI had sought to use Catholic churches as “new avenues for tripwire and source development,” including at “mainline Catholic parishes” and among “local diocesan leadership.”

The reference to "mainline Catholic parishes" and “local diocesan leadership” strongly suggests FBI efforts have gone beyond Latin mass traditionalists in attempting to penetrate Catholic institutions. 22% of the US population in 2017 was Catholic. On Feb 13, 2023, in the wake of the initial leak of the Richmond Field Office document, Bishop of Richmond Barry Knestout issued a statement that read in part,

The leaked document should be troubling and offensive to all communities of faith, as well as all Americans. I am grateful for the Virginia Attorney General and 19 attorneys general who have called upon the government to publicly release all materials related to the production of this memo. If evidence of extremism exists, it should be rooted out, but not at the expense of religious freedom. A preference for traditional forms of worship and holding closely to the Church’s teachings on marriage, family, human sexuality, and the dignity of the human person does not equate with extremism.

. . . “I call on all national representatives from the Commonwealth of Virginia in the House and Senate to exercise their role of oversight, to publicly condemn this threat to religious liberty, and to ensure that such offenses against the constitutionally protected free exercise of religion do not occur again. Racism, religious bigotry, violence, and discrimination have no place in our Church or teachings.

As of yesterday's statement from Chairman Jordan, the FBI had not responded to his requests to provide all the documents relating to the effort to recruit Catholic informants, something Bp Knestout would clearly like to see as well. How many informants nationally does the FBI have attending Catholic masses, Bible studies, or Knights of Columbus meetings? What are they finding? What are they reporting? And as we've been learning, the dividing line between "informant" and "provocateur" is thin indeed. Who's doing what here?

When I look at Abp Timothy Broglio's difficulties with the Walter Reed medical center canceling the ability of the military services archdiocese to supply Catholic chaplains there, it's hard to avoid thinking there's a more widespread sentiment at high levels of the deep state against the Catholic Church, but when I consider the National Catholic Reporter's alarm that the US bishops voted for the conservative Abp Broglio as USCCB president by 138 to 99, and the following day,

elections for other positions indicated a near sweep for conservative candidates. Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City defeated Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin for secretary. New committee chairs included Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois; and Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia,

I've also got to think the bishops are on to something. The Church is changing.

In a more or less unrelated episode in Boston two weeks ago,

The FBI and other federal agents burst into the wrong Boston hotel room Tuesday night during a training exercise, startling the guest inside who had no idea what was going on as he was handcuffed.

The incident occurred on the 15th floor of the Revere Hotel as agents were conducting a mock investigation. FBI agents were assisting the U.S. Department of Defense in a training exercise inside the hotel to simulate a situation that DOD personnel might encounter in a deployed environment.

"Based on inaccurate information, they were mistakenly sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player," the FBI said in a statement.

The agents targeted room 1505, where a Delta Air Lines pilot was sleeping inside and opened the door, WBZ-TV reported.

When agents went in, they handcuffed the man, who is in his 30s, before interrogating him and putting him in the shower, the news report said.

In a different news story on the raid, a retired FBI agent said,

I do question using a very public hotel and at night is just the very strange piece, because most interviews and interrogations are done in the day, and the law enforcement personnel generally work 9-5, so why are you choosing the nighttime which makes no sense. If this was in fact routine, I think they'll be changing their practices.

Well, maybe they're just trying to get us all acclimated to the midnight knock on the door, huh? It's becoming more clear that the FBI must become an issue in 2024 -- and where's Catholic Joe Biden on the issue of recruiting Catholic informers?