By Royal Alexander
Jim Jordan, Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, stated this past week: “Based on the limited information produced by the FBI … we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis and proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith.” (FOX).
Jordan further stated that the FBI expressed interest in “leverag[ing] existing sources and/or initiat[ing] Type 5 Assessments to develop new sources with the placement and access” citing a desire to sensitize religious congregations “to the warning signs of radicalization and enlist their assistance to serve as suspicious activity tripwires.”
This is stunning.
U.S. House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, of Louisiana, described the discovery as a “deeply disturbing targeting of Catholic organizations.”
In a pointed letter to FBI Director, Christopher Wray, Chairman Jordan called this effort “outrageous” asserting that 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.”
Jordan’s letter continued, “Americans attend church to worship and congregate for their spiritual and personal betterment” and “they must be free to exercise their fundamental First Amendment rights without worrying that the FBI may have planted so-called “tripwire” sources or other informants in their houses of worship.”
This is a lot to swallow.
This story exploded when former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin published an internal document originating from the FBI’s Richmond Field Office that appeared to outline a plan to supposedly “mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” and to protect “from the threat of ‘white supremacy,’ which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass.”
Seraphin added that the document “assesses with ‘high confidence’ the FBI can mitigate the so-called threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church.” He later tweeted, “this document seems to be opening a door so that the Leftist intel types can vent their dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church – but eventually all Christians – fighting abortion.”
In what has become an all-too-familiar refrain when yet another illegal agency activity has been discovered, FBI Director Wray awkwardly backtracked stating that “we do not conduct investigations based on religious affiliation or practices, full stop. We have also now ordered our inspection division to take a look at how this happened and try to figure out how we can make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
Whatever.
This is a plan by the FBI to use Catholic churches—and likely other Christian denominations—to spy on their fellow faithful Americans.
Commentator Michael Knowles stated that “the more serious cultural danger in the United States has nothing to do with Catholicism. Our evil rulers, who celebrate the slaughter of babies and castration of children, now plan to spend our tax dollars persecuting Catholics for attending Holy Mass.”
Chris Tomlinson tweeted “the FBI is now targeting people who attend the Traditional Latin Mass, claiming we are “extremists.” Freedom of religion in America is a joke. The FBI and the entire regime in charge of America, headed by Biden, are proving every day that they are an evil force in the world.”
This FBI strategy is outrageous, in and of itself.
In America, we (presumably) don’t infiltrate houses of worship to gather information about supposed “white supremacists.” (What about all the black Catholics?) That is what the KGB and the Nazis do in a police state.
But there is another equally compelling consideration: the FBI’s credibility.
Let’s recall:
The Hunter Biden Laptop scandal, the failure to prosecute Hillary Clinton for the destruction of classified information, the $32 million Russia Collusion Hoax and the attempt by top leadership of the FBI to remove a duly elected President Trump based upon information it knew was false; illegal wiretaps, fraudulent FISA warrants and the labeling of passionate parents as “domestic terrorists” who vocally objected to the Covid masking and vaccine mandates and school shutdowns, as well as the pornographic materials and racial politics their children are taught in public school.
Now, we have a new category of “domestic terrorists” being Catholics with a preference for traditionalism who could allegedly become involved in domestic terrorist activity due to their religious beliefs! What other Christian denominations will be next?
How can the FBI expect the American people to have faith and confidence in it under these circumstances?
