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FBI director grilled after release of new report on targeting of Catholics

Christopher Wray at his confirmation hearing on July 12, 2017. (Credit: Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Image)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 6, 2023 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

Sen. Josh Hawley engaged in a tense exchange with FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday after the release of the report that found the agency’s investigation into traditional Catholics may be more expansive than FBI officials have claimed.

“Now we know that, in fact, FBI agents did approach a priest and a choir director to ask them to inform on parishioners,” Hawley told Wray during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Dec. 5.

The hearing followed the unveiling on Monday of the House Judiciary Committee’s report detailing the results of a monthslong investigation into a leaked internal FBI memo that discussed investigating Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.

“Good heavens, director, this is one of the most outrageous targetings — you have mobilized your division, the most powerful law enforcement division in the world, against traditionalist Catholics … and you just told us you have not fired a single person,” Hawley said during the exchange.

Wray argued with Hawley, saying that he was conflating two distinct things: the memo that the Richmond FBI office has since rescinded and a separate investigation into a man who was amassing molotov cocktails and making threats. In regard to the memo that targeted Catholics, Wray said employees have been admonished and their salaries may be affected.

“We do not and will not conduct investigations based on anybody’s exercise of their constitutionally protected religious [expression],” Wray claimed.

“You have done so and your memo explicitly asks for it,” Hawley retorted.

The new report delved deeper into the FBI’s efforts to investigate traditionalist Catholics and the now-retracted Richmond FBI memo that alleged a link between so-called “radical traditionalist Catholics” and “the far-right white nationalist movement.” The memo suggested “trip wire or source development” within parishes that offer the Traditional Latin Mass and within online communities.

The report found that the internal memo was made available to other FBI field offices, that the FBI may still be looking into the supposed link mentioned in the memo, and that agents interviewed a priest and a choir director affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X in late 2022 — although the FBI claims these interviews were part of a separate investigation and had no relation to the memo.

“The memorandum was spread throughout the FBI, which is contrary to previous assertions that the memorandum was limited to the Richmond Field Office,” the report found, noting that it “was published on an FBI-wide system.”

Although FBI officials have argued that this problem was isolated to one field office, the report found that “the FBI had plans for an external, FBI-wide product based on the Richmond memorandum.” In spite of Wray’s retraction and disavowal of the memo, the report also found that “the FBI may still be attempting to fashion information from the Richmond memorandum into an external-facing document.”

The report cites a private interview the committee held with Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond Field Office Stanley Meador, which revealed that discussions about a broader document are ongoing.

“I know internally there have been some discussions … throughout the months of a desire to still try and get this information out somehow, but … I’ve not seen anything as a result of that,” Meador said, according to the report.

When asked to clarify, Meador said he was referring to the “general subject” of the supposed connection between so-called radical traditionalist Catholics and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.

The investigation also references information disclosed by a whistleblower about FBI agents interviewing a priest and a choir director at a church associated with the Society of St. Pius X in Richmond. The SSPX holds a canonically irregular status with the Catholic Church due to its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrating bishops without papal approval.

“The interviews appear to have occurred in November and December 2022 — the same time the analysts started drafting the memorandum,” the report states. “This information, which the FBI has refused to disclose, confirms that the FBI directly communicated with Catholic clergy and staff about parishioners practicing their faith.”

In a statement to CNA on Tuesday, the FBI disputed the report’s claim, saying that the priest and choir director were interviewed “by FBI Richmond during an investigation of an individual threatening violence who has since been arrested [and] … the interviews were not conducted for the domain perspective as characterized by the report.”

“Any characterization that the FBI is targeting Catholics is false,” the statement read. “We have stated repeatedly that the intelligence product prepared by one FBI field office did not meet the exacting standards of the FBI and was quickly removed from FBI systems. An internal review conducted by the FBI found no malicious intent to target Catholics or members of any other religious faith and did not identify any investigative steps taken as a result of the product.”

The committee, however, said in its report that the bureau “continues to resist several of the committee’s requests for transparency and answers.”

The report said that the FBI “must take decisive action to rebuild public trust,” noting that the Richmond office hasn’t issued a public apology nor removed any employees involved in the creation of the memo.


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19 Comments

  1. #1. We can only pray for and encourage those who work for the FBI and CIA (and ALL other Federal Departments) to act as anonymous informants about illegal activities in those departments where they work.

    #2. The Federal Government is out of control. We no longer have a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” We are asleep and being enslaved without even being aware of it. The question is whether it is too late to get back our country.

    #3. It is likely that at some point the CIA, FBI and the Dept. of Homeland Security (an oxymoron if ever there was one) will all have to be dissolved.

  2. Let me state the obvious right out of the gate – If this weren’t so pathetic it would be funny.

    One wonders what our ‘catholic’ president thinks of it.

  3. Perhaps it is more about political affiliation than religious. Some of these people supported politicians who were also supported by people who advocated the overthrow of government. Perhaps the FBI was just just doing its job in tracing overlapping affiliations and seeing if there was any correlation between groups and political intentions. This is nothing new. They have done it to both sides -the political Left and Right- in the past. It is doubtful that, in this case, they were interested in the religious beliefs or practices of these people, but rather their political allegiances.

    • James, so you’re saying that it’s ok to use the Federal goverment offices to go after people who are your political opponents? You really can’t think so unless they’ve gotten to you too.

    • Name the Catholic groups that specifically advocated the overthrow of the government. When you can’t, be a man and apologize publicly.

    • I recall that, after 9/11, a lot of Muslim teenagers got caught in sting operations by FBI agents who basically plotted the terrorist attack for them, after manipulating and pressuring them into agreeing.

      To be clear, this is an example of the FBI overstepping their bounds and abusing the citizens they are supposed to protect.

      I read the Richmond FBI memo. It’s definition of a radical traditionalist that might be involved in nefarious activities was a person who liked the Latin Mass and EITHER was pro-life OR opposed the LGBTQ agenda OR opposed affirmative action.

      They are going after people because it is expedient for them, not to serve justice. It was wrong when they poisoned alcohol during prohibition, it was wrong when they went after Muslim teens to pad their resumes, and it’s wrong now.

  4. I am near fourscore, a CERTIFIED old coot, living out my dotage, going to Church every Sunday, occasionally attending the Latin Mass 55 miles away, saying my Rosary every day, scheduled to read tomorrow, and now – the esteemed DIRECTOR of the FBI has deigned to connect me with “the far-right nationalist movement”.

    I am SO unworthy.

  5. Trivial and no big deal. Just a couple of FBI agents in an isolated office. The FBI doesn’t have anti-Catholic policy in place. So, a couple of agents were curious and asked some questions to better understand something. The FBI is expected to have an understanding of all that goes on in the USA.

    • Why would they be expected to pursue left-wing ideological fantasies about fictional “right-wing” movements that are contrived only as a means to ignore sober criticisms of the every day crimes against humanity by progressivism?

    • It was a couple FBI agents in the Richmond office, who got advice from several other agents across the country. They were not removed for thinking that law enforcement targeting Americans for their beliefs was a good idea, despite this going before Congress.

      Even if their bosses don’t agree, they clearly don’t think it’s that bad of a way for an FBI agent to think.

  6. If schism minded Catholics are planning acts of treason and violence, then I pray that the Catholic dominated bastion of law and order, the FBI, is successful on rooting out these evil doers and bring them to the justice they so richly deserve.

    Other Catholics have no need to fear if they are not seeking death and destruction in our peace loving society.

    • Under your guidelines Mr. William, President Biden would have much to fear. No other US president’s administration has sought more death and destruction of the unborn.
      The FBI seems to have been targeting pro-lifers for intimidation and traditional Catholic groups lifted from the SPLC’S “Hate” list.Not violent insurrectionists. And ironically one of the SPLC’S criteria for including a couple of those Catholic groups was their perceived antisemitism.

      I hope the FBI is spending as much time infiltrating MIT and Harvard. Ive never met anyone at a TLM as scary as those university leaders who testified in Washington this week. I’m waiting to see a few Ivy League colleges on the SPLC’S Hate List but I imagine its going to be a long wait…

    • You should read the memo. (It’s not that long.) Besides preferring the Latin Mass, it specified the key characteristics of a dangerous radical traditionalist Catholic as being pro-life, OR opposing the LGBTQ agenda, OR opposing affirmative action.

      It specified that the Latin Mass part wasn’t the problem. Somehow I doubt that particular FBI office is a bastion of faithful Catholics.

      The Bishop of Richmond (the location of the FBI office with most of the involved agents) issued a statement in support of the traditionalist Catholics in his diocese. He’s a very long way from a traditionalist, but presumably you don’t have to be one in order to recognize injustice.

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