It has been seven days since a leaked FBI report revealed its Richmond, Virginia field office had infiltrated Catholic communities to investigate “white supremacy,” and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) has said nothing in defense of Catholics, traditional or otherwise.
The FBI document is a disaster, providing zero evidence that traditional Catholics (those who enjoy the Latin liturgical rite) are violent or racist. Instead, the report smears these Christians by alleging they all have an “adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology.”
The FBI backpedaled on the report, but that doesn’t change the disturbing fact that the bureau demonized and appears to have infiltrated Christian communities for religious thought crimes. It also doesn’t change the unnerving fact that this won’t likely be the last time the FBI targets traditional Christians.
What has the Catholic Church hierarchy had to say in the seven days since the slanderous leak? Nothing. The Federalist even reached out to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops to ask for comment on the illegal targeting of innocent and devout Catholics, but never received a response. So far, only one member of the conference, Bishop Barry Knestout, has spoken out.
The U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops is a powerful organization, with a 2018 budget of more than $200 million, much of it from federal grants and contracts. It also has not cowered from inserting itself into heated national political discussions in the past.
The USCCB produced multiple condemnations of former President Donald Trump’s executive orders to
