It is not every day that one learns that federal law enforcement (this time, the compromised and diminished Federal Bureau of Investigation) is watching your church and its members. But that is exactly what happened in Richmond, Virginia, where someone at the FBI’s Richmond field office recently wrote a memo warning that those Catholics who attend the traditional Latin Mass are “almost certainly” ripe targets for recruitment by violent extremists.
In full disclosure, this columnist attends the Latin Mass in Richmond, Virginia; for all we know, the FBI analysis was pointed directly at this columnist.
How did the FBI come to the conclusion that the old ladies and young families at Mass are just a handful of steps away from becoming modern-day Weathermen? Well, the Richmond field office figured that since those folks have concerns that the post-Vatican II church might not be firing on all cylinders, it only stands to reason that they are likely to be anti-Semitic, racist xenophobes ready to pull down the civilized order at any moment.
If you don’t follow that, maybe knowing the sourcing of the memo will help. The memo appears to lean on a report by the very much left of center Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as the analyst’s own sentiments about the pro-life orientation of the Catholic Church. Other sources include the Salon website and Atlantic magazine. If you can’t trust those guys when it comes to extremism, who can you trust?
In one unintentionally hilarious passage, the memo distinguishes Catholics who attend Latin Mass routinely from those who attend “mainline” Catholic churches. Bad news Mr. Special Agent in charge of religious surveillance: all Catholics in union with Rome pray for the Pope and their local bishop at every Mass as a sign of unity. There are no such things as “mainline” Catholic churches; that nonsense is reserved for the Protestants.
It is beyond ironic that this recent attack on the American republic, directed on churches, comes just days after the modernized version of the Church Committee — focused on precisely these sorts of abuses — opened for business on Capitol Hill.