FBI retracts document targeting Traditionalist Catholics

17th February 2023

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has retracted a field-office report lumping some “traditionalist” Catholics with “violent extremists”. The prestigious Wall Street Journal criticised the report’s embrace of a “false leftist political narrative that religiously inspired support of traditional marriage or pro-life views amount to a rising domestic terror threat”.

A whistleblower last week leaked a January report from the FBI’s Richmond office entitled: “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”

According to the report, “radical-traditionalist Catholics” are characterised by their devotion to the Latin Mass, their disdain for modern popes, and their “frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.”

It also noted its lack of evidence that “radical” traditionalist Catholics have done anything to warrant targeting.

The FBI retracted the document once it was made public saying it didn’t meet the Bureau’s “exacting standards” and was being removed from its system.