My good friend — OK, OK, I’ve never actually met her, but people can become good friends over Twitter these days — Christine Flowers says, in her Twitter biography, that she has an “open carry permit for (her) assault rosary.” That was a mocking reference to an article by Daniel Panneton in The Atlantic, originally entitled “How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol“, about which I have previously written.

The Atlantic got plenty of pushback about it, and twice changed the article headline and subheading — the title “How Extremist Gun Culture Co-Opted the Rosary: The AR-15 is a sacred object among Christian nationalists. Now “radical-traditional” Catholics are bringing a sacrament of their own to the movement” isn’t shown in the screen captures tweeted by Taylor Marshall — imaged to the left, but the internet is forever.

And now we find out that some in the federal government, specifically the FBI, see Catholics, at least some Catholics, as evil subversives. From National Review:

FBI Internal Memo Warns against ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology’

by Brittany Bernstein | Wednesday, February 8, 2023 | 5:14 PM EST

The FBI’s Richmond field office released an internal memo last month warning against “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology,” and claiming it “almost certainly presents new mitigation opportunities,” according to a document shared by an FBI whistleblower on Wednesday.

Kyle Seraphin, who was a special agent at the bureau for six years before he was indefinitely suspended without pay in June 2022, published the document, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” on UncoverDC.com.

“In making this assessment, FBI Richmond relied on the key assumption that [racially or ethnically motivated extremists] will continue to find [radical-traditionalist Catholic or RTC] ideology attractive and will continue to attempt to connect with RTC adherents, both virtually via social media and in-person at places of worship,” the document from January 23 states.

It adds that “RTCs are typically categorized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid church council; disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II; and frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology. Radical-traditionalist Catholics compose a small minority of overall Roman Catholic adherents and are separate and distinct from ‘traditionalist Catholics’ who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings and traditions, without the more extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric.”

There’s more at the original, and it’s not behind a paywall, so you can read it freely.

The author, Brittany Bernstein, noted that the FBI report was sourced from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left source which supports just about every #woke^[1]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading position out there. A screen capture of the Catholic organizations that the SPLC considers to be “Radical Traditional Catholic Hate Groups” in the United States can be found here.

I’m old enough to remember when the President of the United States was telling us that we should not hate all Muslims or blame all Muslims because “some people did something” on September 11^th. But now we have a FBI functionary claiming that the internal debate in the Catholic Church over the restriction of the Tridentine Mass is something which Must Be Watched, and who believes that the federal government needs to take sides on that internal Church debate because one side could be influenced by people who are evil and dangerous.

The website UncoverDC report noted what is obvious in reading through the leaked document: the “Analyst” is primarily concerned about abortion. More than that, he’s just stupid “woke.” In the footnotes on page 4, reproduced to the left, and on which you can click to enlarge, the “Analyst” refers not to a pregnant woman, but a “pregnant person,” and then uses the plural “their” as a possessive pronoun in reference to the singular “pregnant person.”

A screen capture of some of the endnotes shows how the “Analyst” depended on the SPLC, the far-left website Salon, and Daniel Panneton’s Atlantic article as sources.

From page 4 of the document:

This assessment is made in light of the ongoing polarization characterizing the US political environment and the probability that policy issues of mutual interest to RMVEs (Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists) and RTE (Radical-Traditionalist Catholics) adherents will remain in the public spotlight. Catalyzing events in which RMVEs and RTC adherents might have common cause include legislation or judicial decisions in areas such as abortion rights, immigration, affirmative action, and LBGTQ protections.

Translation: this is all about liberal politics. But it is also about the weaponization of government law enforcement agencies against believing Catholics. I’m old enough to remember the exchange between Center For American Progress fellow John Halpin and Hillary Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri, in the e-mails hacked by Wikileaks:

Mr Halpin: Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic (many converts) …they must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations.

Miss Palmieri: I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.

I have my assault rosary hanging from the rear view mirror of my F-150.

Of course, Mr Halpin and Miss Palmieri thought that their conversation was confidential, and wouldn’t be made public, but I hold that we should trust people when they tell us who they are. Miss Palmeiri stated that she didn’t recognize the e-mail and that she is, herself, Catholic, but I suspect that she and all of the others on the political left are Catholics like Joe Biden, Democrats first and Catholics a distant, distant second.

That of the six Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe v Wade in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, five are Catholic, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Barrett, and the sixth, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, is an Episcopalian who was reared Catholic, has only raised the anti-Catholicism of the left. That President Biden is nominally Catholic doesn’t bother the left, because they see his faith as only pro-forma, and not serious.

And thus we haven’t heard much from the left about the leaked FBI document suggesting increased surveillance of “Radical Traditional Catholics,” because the left absolutely support that. We’ve long known that the left no longer support freedom of speech or freedom of the press, not as long as those things can be used to spread conservative political messages, and now they are making it clear that freedom of religion isn’t one of the things they find particularly good, either.