As we noted on Friday, an FBI “Analyst” submitted a proposal to monitor traditional Catholics who prefer the Tridentine, or Traditional Latin, Mass, “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics,” or RTEs, he called them, because “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists,” or RMVEs might be interested in using Latin Mass Catholics to spread their goals.

Someone leaked a hand-redacted, redacted by magic marker, copy of the “FBI internal use only” document, and the Bureau decided, rather quickly, that they ought to withdraw the document entirely.

FBI retracts leaked document orchestrating investigation of Catholics

By Tyler Arnold and Joe Bukuras | Thursday, February 9, 2023 | 3:15 PM EST

The FBI says it is retracting a leaked document published on the internet Feb. 8 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.”

In response to an inquiry from CNA, the FBI said it will remove the document because “it does not meet our exacting standards.”

Really? The document is ‘sourced’ citing far-left political sources, including Salon, The Atlantic, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. If there are less biased sources, they were redacted from the document. It’s so bad that it makes me wonder: if it was a great departure from the Bureau’s “exacting standards,” why wouldn’t the document author have realized it, and the Bureau have flagged it before it was leaked? Or is the document not really that great a departure from those “exacting standards,” which calls into question just how “exacting” those standards really are.

Can we tell the truth here? The document was retracted because it was leaked, and the FBI were embarrassed.

There’s a lot more at the Catholic News Agency’s original.

The House of Representatives have set up a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, to investigate how the government are using government law enforcement agencies for political purposes, and this now-retracted document is simply more evidence of how those agencies have been operating. The document told us, explicitly, that the FBI were concerned about “Catalyzing events in which RMVEs and RTC adherents might have common cause include legislation or judicial decisions in areas such as abortion rights, immigration,^[1]Kind of silly, since Pope Francis and the vast majority of the Catholic clergy support almost entirely unrestricted immigration policies. affirmative action, and LBGTQ protections.” Those things are political issues, on which there is considerable disagreement between the left and sensible people, not matters of law enforcement. I’m happy to say that Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY 4^th District), one of the dedicated libertarians in the House, is on that subcommittee, because when it comes to government intrusion on the rights of individuals, not much gets past him!

To me, this gets to a point about the American left. I 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.

To Miss Palmieri, who has said that she is personally Catholic, Catholicism is just “the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion,” even though she, as Hillary Clinton’s communications director, was certainly not “politically conservative” herself. At the very least, her professed faith did not keep her from shilling for a candidate who supported an unlimited prenatal infanticide license, and who, if she had been elected, would not have appointed Supreme Court Justices who would have overruled Roe v Wade.

Though not on the agenda for the 2016 election, I’d note that it wasn’t until Associate Justice Ruth Ginsberg went to her eternal reward and Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed that the Court took freedom of religion into account when it came to the restrictions that states put on churches to fight the COVID-19 panicdemic.^[2]No, that’s not a typographical error; panicdemic was exactly how I intended to spell it, because panic is exactly how governments reacted.

Miss Palmeiri, Mrs Clinton, and President Biden are all indicative of the problem of religion for the left, professed Christians who actually put Christianity far, far, far behind being Democrats. Faith in God, and obedience to the tenets of almost every Christian denomination, fall far behind promoting abortion and the homosexual and ‘transgender’ agenda. Miss Palmeiri said the quiet part out loud: to her, religious faith is determined by politics, rather than the other way around.

And, for at least one FBI “Analyst”, protection of those leftist ideologies was far more important than respecting people’s religious rights.