New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan in a September 20, 2018 photo. (CNS photo/Jeenah Moon, Reuters)
Boston, Mass., Feb 17, 2023 / 15:15 pm (CNA).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) responded Thursday to a leaked document from the FBI that appears to reveal that the bureau’s Richmond division launched an investigation into “radical traditionalist” Catholics and their possible ties to “the far-right white nationalist movement.”
“Let me first be clear: Anyone who espouses racism or promotes violence is rejecting Catholic teaching on the inherent dignity of each and every person,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, said in a Feb. 16 statement. “The USCCB roundly condemns such extremism and fully supports the work of law enforcement officials to keep our communities safe.”
The leaked document has been condemned by several federal and state officials, as well as clergy, including Bishop Barry Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond, who recently called the memo a “threat to religious liberty.”
“I agree with my brother Bishop Barry Knestout that the leaked memorandum was nonetheless ‘troubling and offensive’ in several respects — such as in its religious profiling and reliance on dubious sourcing — and am glad it has been rescinded,” Dolan said. “We encourage federal law enforcement authorities to take appropriate measures to ensure the problematic aspects of the memo do not recur in any of their agencies’ work going forward.”
Since the document was leaked, many Catholics have criticized the FBI, but in a statement to CNA Feb. 9, the bureau said it would remove the document because “it does not meet our exacting standards.”
The FBI’s national press office confirmed to CNA that the document came from the Richmond office but stated that it would “remove the document from FBI systems” because it “does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI.”
“While our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products, this particular field office product — disseminated only within the FBI — regarding racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI,” the statement read.
“Upon learning of the document, FBI Headquarters quickly began taking action to remove the document from FBI systems and conduct a review of the basis for the document. The FBI is committed to sound analytic tradecraft and to investigating and preventing acts of violence and other crimes while upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and will never conduct investigative activities or open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity,” the statement from the FBI National Press Office concluded.
The document, dated Jan. 23, claims that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists will likely become more interested in “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” within the next 12 to 24 months “in the run-up to the next general election cycle.”
It points to potential “policy issues of mutual interest” between “radical-traditional” Catholics and violent extremists such as “abortion rights, immigration, affirmative action, and LGBTQ protections.”
Marked “unclassified/for official use only,” the document includes a list of organizations with Catholic ties that are listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) list of hate groups.
Some of the organizations identified in the document as adhering to “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” include Tradition in Action, The Remnant, Culture Wars Magazine, and the Fatima Crusader.
The SPLC has faced questions about its credibility from conservative and Christian organizations that have accused the group of a left-wing bias. Among the groups that made the SPLC’s 2021 list of supposed “hate groups” are the conservative and pro-family groups Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, ACT for America, the Center for Security Policy, and the American Freedom Law Center.
The internal memorandum, titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” was first published Feb. 8 by the website UncoverDC and can be read here.
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Stained glass window depicting St. Joseph. / Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 29, 2022 / 16:40 pm (CNA).
As Pope Francis concludes his visit to Canada, he is leaving behind his “dearest friend”: St. Joseph.Before traveling to Iq… […]
Peoria, Ill., Aug 25, 2021 / 10:58 am (CNA).
Proponents of the beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen are still searching for answers about the cause, nearly two years after that process was paused.“I don’t know much,” Bishop Louis … […]
Anna Lulis from Moneta, Virginia, (left) who works for the pro-life group Students for Life of America, stands beside an abortion rights demonstrator outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2022, after the court’s decision in the Dobbs abortion case was announced. / Katie Yoder/CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 5, 2022 / 13:31 pm (CNA).
U.S. Catholic voters are split on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, but a majority agrees that abortion should be restricted and that there should be at least some protections for the unborn child in the womb, according to a new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll.
The court’s June 24 ruling in the Mississippi abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization upended 49 years of nationwide legalized abortion and freed states to regulate abortion as they see fit.
When asked whether they agreed or disagreed with Roe being overturned, 46.2% agreed, 47.8% disagreed, and 6% said they weren’t sure.
Catholic voters were similarly split on whether they are more or less likely to support a candidate who agrees with Roe’s dismantling: 42% said they were more likely, 41.9% said they were less likely, and 16.1% were unsure.
At the same time, the poll results point to apparent inconsistencies in Catholic voters’ positions on abortion.
While nearly half of Catholic voters in the poll said they disagreed with Roe being overturned, a large majority (86.5%) said they support some kind of limit on abortion, even though Roe and related abortion cases allowed only narrow regulation at the state level. The breakdown is as follows:
26.8% said abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother;
19.8% said abortion should be allowed until 15 weeks when the baby can feel pain;
13.1% said that abortion should be allowed only during the first six months of pregnancy;
9.9% said that abortion should be allowed only until a heartbeat can be detected, and
9.1% said that abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother.
Of special note for Catholic pro-life leaders, only a small minority of Catholic voters — 7.8% — were aligned with the clear and consistent teaching of the Catholic Church that abortion should never be allowed.
On the other end of the spectrum of abortion views, 13.4% of Catholic voters said that abortion should be available to a woman at any time during her pregnancy.
The poll, conducted by the Trafalgar Group from Sept. 12–19, surveyed 1,581 Catholic voters and has a margin of error of 2.5%. The questionnaire was administered using a mix of six different methods, including phone calls, text messages, and email.
The poll’s results echo surveys of the general U.S. population on abortion. A Pew Research Center survey from March found that 19% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all cases, while 8% said it should be illegal in all cases. More recent Gallup data from May found that 35% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal under any circumstances while 13% said it should be illegal in all circumstances.
The Pew Research Center data also looked at Catholic adults. Thirteen percent said abortion should be legal in all cases, while 10% said it should be illegal in all cases.
A previous EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research poll released in July found that 9% of Catholic likely voters said abortion should never be permitted and 18% said that abortion should be available at any time. The poll similarly showed that a majority of Catholic voters (82%) support some kind of restriction on abortion.
Confused about what Roe said?
The poll’s results came as little surprise to Catholic pro-life public policy experts such as Elizabeth R. Kirk.
“This study confirms a phenomenon we have known for some time, i.e., that there is an enormous disconnect between the scope of abortion practices permitted by the Roe regime and what abortion practices Americans actually support,” Kirk, director of the Center for Law and the Human Person at The Catholic University of America, told CNA.
Kirk, who also serves as a faculty fellow for the Institute for Human Ecology and research associate and lecturer at the Columbus School of Law, noted the finding that nearly 42% of Catholic voters said they are less likely to support a candidate who agrees with Roe being overturned.
“At first glance that suggests that many Catholic voters wanted to keep Roe in place,” she said. “Yet, the study also reveals that 86.5% of Catholic voters want some type of restriction on abortion access.”
Why the inconsistency? “Most people do not realize that Roe allowed states to permit unlimited abortion access throughout the entire pregnancy and made it difficult, or even impossible, to enact commonsense restrictions supported by the majority of Americans,” Kirk observed.
“Many people who ‘support Roe’ actually disagree, unknowingly, with what it permitted,” she added. “All Dobbs has done is return abortion policy to the legislative process so that the people may enact laws which reflect the public consensus.”
Mass-goers more strongly pro-life
The new poll, the second of three surveys of Catholic voters tied to the midterm elections on Nov. 8, shows that the opinions of Catholic voters on abortion and other issues vary depending on how often respondents attend Mass.
Only a small portion of those who attend Mass at least once a week said that abortion should be allowed at any time: 0% of those who attend Mass daily, 1% who attend more than once a week, and 8% of those who attend weekly support abortion without restrictions. In contrast, 57.5% of Catholic voters who attend Mass daily, 21.5% of those who attend more than once a week, and 15.6% of those who attend weekly say abortion should never be permitted.
In addition to respondents’ apparent confusion about what Roe stipulated, the poll suggests that many Catholic voters don’t fully understand what their Church teaches about abortion.
Less than one-third of Catholic voters who said they accept all Church teachings (31.1%) said that abortion should never be permitted, and 5% who profess to fully accept the Church’s teachings said abortion should be permitted at any time.
Overall, 32.8% of respondents reported attending Mass at least once a week, with another 30.7% attending once a year or less. Only 15% agreed that they accept all of the Church’s teachings and live their lives accordingly, with another 34.5% saying they generally accept most of the Church’s teachings and try to live accordingly.
Pew Research Center also looked at how Mass attendance factors into Catholics’ views on abortion. Among those who attend Mass at least once a week: 4% said abortion should be legal in all cases, and 24% said it should be illegal in all cases, Pew found.
Strong support for pregnancy centers
The poll asked Catholic voters about a variety of other topics including abortion limits, Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians, conscience protections for health care workers, and pro-life pregnancy centers.
EWTN
Among the findings:
Catholic voters are prioritizing other issues above abortion. Only 10.1% of Catholic voters identified abortion as the most important issue facing the nation, falling behind inflation (34.2%) and the economy/jobs (19.7%) and tying with immigration. At the same time, a higher percentage of Catholic voters chose abortion than crime (8.7%), climate change (8.1% ), health care (6.8%), K–12 education (1.7%), or religious freedom (0.8%).
About half of Catholic voters (49.3%) disagreed that Catholic political leaders who support abortion publicly and promote policies that increase abortion access should refrain from taking Communion, while 36.7% said they should refrain.
A majority (67.4%) of Catholic voters said they support public funding for pro-life pregnancy centers that offer pregnant women life-affirming alternatives to abortion, while 18.3% said they did not favor using tax dollars for this purpose.
A comparable majority (61.8%) said that political and church leaders should be speaking out against the recent attacks and acts of vandalism on pregnancy resource centers.
When asked about conscience protections for health care workers that would allow them to opt out of providing “services” such as abortion, a majority of Catholic voters (60.7%) said that health care workers should not be obligated to engage in procedures that they object to based on moral or religious grounds. Conversely, 25.3% said that health care workers should be obligated to engage in procedures that they object to based on moral or religious grounds.
Work to be done
What is the takeaway from the latest poll, where abortion is concerned?
“This polling shows that Catholics, like the overwhelming majority of Americans, support commonsense protections for women and the unborn,” Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, told CNA.
“It also affirms other recent polling that found Americans by strong numbers support the work of pregnancy resource centers in providing women facing crisis pregnancies with a real choice and the chance to thrive as mothers despite difficult circumstances,” she noted.
EWTN
At the same time, McGuire added, “This new polling is also a reminder that more work needs to be done in catechizing Catholics on foundational Church teaching in support of vulnerable life in all stages — an effort that is continually undermined by Catholic politicians in the highest echelons of power who use their platforms to advocate for extreme abortion policies in direct violation of Church teaching.”
Nearly all of those surveyed (99.2%) said they plan to vote in the midterm elections on Nov. 8.
As so often happens, Cardinal Dolan completely misses the point of the FBI alert.
This isn’t about shooting guns or throwing bombs.
Anyone merely espousing Catholic teachings *is* by definition a terrorist simply because he’s dissenting from the mandatory leftist governmental position.
The mere enunciation of Catholic doctrine is hate speech — i.e., violence — and is a real threat to the public welfare.
Now, our FBI guardians are not saying that all Catholics are enemies of the state. Remember Nancy Pelosi, Teddy Kennedy, Joe Biden and the rest of the Catholics who are responsible for the murders of more than a billion children worldwide over the past half century in the name of women’s health care.
Those Catholics don’t really actually *believe* all of that medieval Catholic stuff.
The small percentage who do actually *do* believe it? They’re the crazy ones, the ones whom the FBI is warning us to watch out for.
And I’m pretty sure Cardinal Dolan and most of the rest of our Church leaders have nothing to worry about.
Don’t pray near, or defend yourself or your family near, an abortion facility or they may come with weapons in hand and knock you away from your oatmeal the next morning.
Far too many of our bishops are ‘a day late and a dollar short.’
Far too many bishops play the consummate politician: They know who wields the power, how to get funding and what brings prestige. Too bad far too many of them don’t embrace the Cross.
It’s obvious that issuing, then rescinding, this document was intentionally orchestrated in order to send a message. The USCCB should be vehemently protesting from the rooftops. Unfortunately, too many bishops are pleased with the effect of this particular action.
And no one wonders how it is that the FBI brass is shocked to learn of an FBI directive. This isn’t the first time. They were shocked to learn that an FBI directive (issued in collusion with the association of school boards) seemed to target parents who expressed concern about their school’s curriculum at school board meetings. Just because you rescind the directive, you don’t necessarily end the policy. Watch what they do, not what they say. The FBI wants to thin the Catholic herd, and the targets may well not particularly dismay the bishops. Yet…
Herein my submisssion for the ‘Captain Obvious’ award for the month of February 2023 – In branding TLM adherents like myself as ‘violent extremists’ the FBI revealed their true colors and GOT CAUGHT. They are, predictably, trying to lie their way out of it. (Personally I would love to know the identity of the person who came up with that phrase, but I’m not going to hold my breath.)
I repeat – they revealed their true colors and GOT CAUGHT – We must NEVER forget that simple fact.
Cardinal Dolan first needs to assure us that he is against racism and violence, even though the groups that the FBI were addressing were not for racism and violence.
He then states that he finds the FBI memo “troubling and offensive.” I suppose that is the strongest language that we could expect from Cardinal Dolan or the USCCB.
The current Federal government is the enemy of our faith. It is ridiculous to keep addressing these issues as though they were occasional aberrations.
Oh, hey, it’s just an editing oversight! In these scrabbled times, the bureaucracy’s random word generator simply had a hiccup…then a later mistake in the boardroom with the routinized consent agenda! The politicized FBI, or maybe just a somnambulist FIB, or whatever…
But, it’s more than a spelling error–the difference between “profiling” and prolifing.
McCarthyism has made an unfortunate come back during these two years of democrat rule in particular. It would appear that ANYONE who holds an opinion about ANYTHING which is opposite that of the government is now suspect as a traitor, terrorist, racist, or some other danger to society. Disagree about the election, covid, immigration or even comedy jokes, and the situation is the same. That this has happened in a nation which has historically valued free speech above all is especially disturbing.That it is being linked to religion and endangers THAT long held freedom too, is even more dangerous. The govt already inserted itself in an area of religion in which it had no business by forcing the closure of churches in 2020, with covid as the alleged reason. This process became overtly suspect because the closures extended far beyond any reasonable danger and restricted churches with a capacity of 700 to 1000 people to allowing only 10 people at a time inside. Then it prohibited singing . And some places wanted the churches to actually TAKE THE NAMES of those allowed to enter!!!! As weeks dragged into months, Churches had to go to COURT to force the govt to remove its iron grasp on worship in the US. Sad to say, Josef Stalin would find himself quite at home with such govt agents. I wish I could say I was shocked to find that traditional catholics are now treason/ terrorist suspects. Unfortunately, the govt, our law agencies and the spineless pro-democrat press have laid so much groundwork to attack religious freedoms that this is little more than a continuation of oppression. My only question is, as the Germans forced the Jews to wear a yellow star when out in public, do they plan to do something similar to Catholics? A yellow crucifix maybe??
“U.S. Bishops: FBI document targeting Catholics is ‘religious profiling’.”
Agreed
It’s also downright stupid, and you know what they say about stupid, especially since these clowns got CAUGHT.
And it happened on Joe’s watch – let’s not forget that one either, which in turn begs the question – is anyone surprised?
I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there is an ‘Imprimatur’ on it.
SPLC has been a Communist Front since it’s beginnings.No suprise there.Except for the democrat lemmings who pull or mark the box {D} on their various ballots.And there are many.
As so often happens, Cardinal Dolan completely misses the point of the FBI alert.
This isn’t about shooting guns or throwing bombs.
Anyone merely espousing Catholic teachings *is* by definition a terrorist simply because he’s dissenting from the mandatory leftist governmental position.
The mere enunciation of Catholic doctrine is hate speech — i.e., violence — and is a real threat to the public welfare.
Now, our FBI guardians are not saying that all Catholics are enemies of the state. Remember Nancy Pelosi, Teddy Kennedy, Joe Biden and the rest of the Catholics who are responsible for the murders of more than a billion children worldwide over the past half century in the name of women’s health care.
Those Catholics don’t really actually *believe* all of that medieval Catholic stuff.
The small percentage who do actually *do* believe it? They’re the crazy ones, the ones whom the FBI is warning us to watch out for.
And I’m pretty sure Cardinal Dolan and most of the rest of our Church leaders have nothing to worry about.
(Sigh.)
“does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI” should have been “is fundamentally at odds with the mission of the FBI”.
Except that it isn’t.
The FBI is now the enforcement arm of the ruling Democratic Party.
The “law” that the agency is enforcing is conformity to the dictates of our nation’s newly engineered reality.
The “rights” the agency protects are the rights of the Democratic majority to be undisturbed by unacceptable thoughts and forbidden utterances.
Don’t pray near, or defend yourself or your family near, an abortion facility or they may come with weapons in hand and knock you away from your oatmeal the next morning.
I guess they don’t believe in gun control…..
Far too many of our bishops are ‘a day late and a dollar short.’
Far too many bishops play the consummate politician: They know who wields the power, how to get funding and what brings prestige. Too bad far too many of them don’t embrace the Cross.
It’s obvious that issuing, then rescinding, this document was intentionally orchestrated in order to send a message. The USCCB should be vehemently protesting from the rooftops. Unfortunately, too many bishops are pleased with the effect of this particular action.
And no one wonders how it is that the FBI brass is shocked to learn of an FBI directive. This isn’t the first time. They were shocked to learn that an FBI directive (issued in collusion with the association of school boards) seemed to target parents who expressed concern about their school’s curriculum at school board meetings. Just because you rescind the directive, you don’t necessarily end the policy. Watch what they do, not what they say. The FBI wants to thin the Catholic herd, and the targets may well not particularly dismay the bishops. Yet…
Herein my submisssion for the ‘Captain Obvious’ award for the month of February 2023 – In branding TLM adherents like myself as ‘violent extremists’ the FBI revealed their true colors and GOT CAUGHT. They are, predictably, trying to lie their way out of it. (Personally I would love to know the identity of the person who came up with that phrase, but I’m not going to hold my breath.)
I repeat – they revealed their true colors and GOT CAUGHT – We must NEVER forget that simple fact.
Cardinal Dolan first needs to assure us that he is against racism and violence, even though the groups that the FBI were addressing were not for racism and violence.
He then states that he finds the FBI memo “troubling and offensive.” I suppose that is the strongest language that we could expect from Cardinal Dolan or the USCCB.
The current Federal government is the enemy of our faith. It is ridiculous to keep addressing these issues as though they were occasional aberrations.
The Bishop of Rome gives two thumbs up to the actions of Christopher Wray and all of his comrades in the Fools Buffoons and Incompetents.
Oh, hey, it’s just an editing oversight! In these scrabbled times, the bureaucracy’s random word generator simply had a hiccup…then a later mistake in the boardroom with the routinized consent agenda! The politicized FBI, or maybe just a somnambulist FIB, or whatever…
But, it’s more than a spelling error–the difference between “profiling” and prolifing.
McCarthyism has made an unfortunate come back during these two years of democrat rule in particular. It would appear that ANYONE who holds an opinion about ANYTHING which is opposite that of the government is now suspect as a traitor, terrorist, racist, or some other danger to society. Disagree about the election, covid, immigration or even comedy jokes, and the situation is the same. That this has happened in a nation which has historically valued free speech above all is especially disturbing.That it is being linked to religion and endangers THAT long held freedom too, is even more dangerous. The govt already inserted itself in an area of religion in which it had no business by forcing the closure of churches in 2020, with covid as the alleged reason. This process became overtly suspect because the closures extended far beyond any reasonable danger and restricted churches with a capacity of 700 to 1000 people to allowing only 10 people at a time inside. Then it prohibited singing . And some places wanted the churches to actually TAKE THE NAMES of those allowed to enter!!!! As weeks dragged into months, Churches had to go to COURT to force the govt to remove its iron grasp on worship in the US. Sad to say, Josef Stalin would find himself quite at home with such govt agents. I wish I could say I was shocked to find that traditional catholics are now treason/ terrorist suspects. Unfortunately, the govt, our law agencies and the spineless pro-democrat press have laid so much groundwork to attack religious freedoms that this is little more than a continuation of oppression. My only question is, as the Germans forced the Jews to wear a yellow star when out in public, do they plan to do something similar to Catholics? A yellow crucifix maybe??
In Canada, that one pastor who came from the Communist Bloch? got arrested right on the highway for holding services.
I m from the government and I’m here to help
“U.S. Bishops: FBI document targeting Catholics is ‘religious profiling’.”
Agreed
It’s also downright stupid, and you know what they say about stupid, especially since these clowns got CAUGHT.
And it happened on Joe’s watch – let’s not forget that one either, which in turn begs the question – is anyone surprised?
I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there is an ‘Imprimatur’ on it.
SPLC has been a Communist Front since it’s beginnings.No suprise there.Except for the democrat lemmings who pull or mark the box {D} on their various ballots.And there are many.
According to the FBI – I am a ‘radical traditionalist’.
According to Hillary Clinton and her minions – I am a ‘deplorable’.
According to MSNBC and their ilk I am a ‘far right extremist’.
There are, I am sure, even more accolades coming.
I am SO unworthy of them – but I’ll take ’em.