Curt Flewelling, FISM News
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan continues to wait for the FBI to answer questions regarding the department’s alleged program to surveil Catholic churches.
In February, whistleblowers informed Jordan’s committee of the program to cultivate relationships with congregants and even church leaders, in order to obtain information regarding possible signs of radicalization within the church.
The document that set off the firestorm was generated by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office and was entitled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”
Jordan requested answers to the allegations and received no response from the department. The committee sent out another request that was met with what Jordan termed a “substandard and partial response” to his questions.
Tired of two months of stonewalling, the Chairman has issued a subpoena for all of the FBI’s records on the program. Jordan expressed outrage that the bureau would target Catholic Americans for their religious beliefs.
In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Congressman said, “In this document, the FBI purported to distinguish what it called ‘traditional Catholics’ from the disfavored RTC (radical-traditionalist Catholic) adherents, who the FBI characterized as embracing anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.”
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has been indignant over the alleged anti-Catholic bigotry at the bureau and fashioned a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland that voiced his disapproval.
Some of our first states were founded as safe havens for religious dissenters. There is no right more sacred to American democracy than the right to worship freely. We are horrified to learn that at least one field office of the FBI, apparently does not agree with this proposition.
Many in the faith-based community feel that the practice of using governmental agencies to harass American citizens is largely due to the current administration’s opposition to traditional family values and pro-life beliefs.
Mike McDonald, communications director for the Catholic League, told the Epoch Times, “President Joe Biden is the most ‘anti-Catholic president in American history.’ And by that, I mean that he’s actively working against the church and fundamentally trying to undermine the teachings of Catholicism.”