Chris Lange, FISM News
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The House Judiciary committee issued a subpoena to Federal Bureau of Investigations Director Christopher Wray for information on the agency’s efforts to spy on Catholic churches.
The Committee on Monday published a press release detailing information obtained from internal FBI documents showing that the Bureau’s Richmond Field Office had been developing local sources to infiltrate churches and report possible domestic terrorism threats. The documents also reveal efforts to “sensitize” parishioners to “the warning signs of radicalization.”
According to the release, the Bureau had embarked on a plan to “use local religious organizations as ‘new avenues for tripwire and source development.’”
This outreach plan even included contacting so-called “mainline Catholic parishes” and the local “diocesan leadership,” the Committee wrote.
“Based on the limited information produced by the FBI to the Committee, we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis and that the FBI 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,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in a letter to Wray Monday informing him of the subpoena.
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— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) April 11, 2023
Jordan called the discoveries “outrageous,” noting that “[t]he 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.”
The missive also revealed that at least two senior intelligence analysts and Richmond’s Chief Division Counsel reviewed and approved of the proposals outlined in the documents.
“We know from whistleblowers that the FBI distributed this document to field offices across the country,” Jordan wrote.
SHOCKING ASSAULT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Reps. Jordan and Mike Johnson (R-La.), both of whom serve on the Republican-led Weaponization Subcommittee, sent a letter to Wray in February requesting information about a “domain perspective” authored by the Richmond Field Office titled: “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.” The document linked “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” (RMVEs) to “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology” (RTC).
A second letter was sent to the Bureau chief on March 20, noting that Wray had failed to produce substantive responses to the previous request concerning “this misuse of federal law-enforcement resources.” The lawmakers warned Wray that the Committee would “resort to compulsory processes to obtain the required documents if necessary.”
Three days later, Wray handed over 18 heavily redacted documents the House Judiciary Committee slammed as a “substandard and partial response,” ultimately prompting the subpoena.
“Americans attend church to worship and congregate for their spiritual and personal betterment,” Jordan asserted in Monday’s letter. “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.”
CATHOLIC BISHOP: RICHMOND MEMO ‘ALARMING’
The Catholic Diocese of Richmond issued a statement following the February release of the Richmond Field Office memo, calling the document “alarming.”
“The leaked document should be troubling and offensive to all communities of faith, as well as all Americans,” Bishop Christopher Barry Knestout said. “If evidence of extremism exists, it should be rooted out, but not at the expense of religious freedom.”
The bishop asserted that “traditional” biblical instruction concerning “marriage, family, human sexuality, and the dignity of the human person” that fails to align with the beliefs and opinions of others “does not equate with extremism.”
This article was partially informed by The Hill and Fox News reports.