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 enforce U.S. immigration laws and require foreign countries to address their own citizens’ needs. It also publicly criticized the former president for withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement that would lead to more poor Americans lacking food and heat, and issued several doomsday climate statements to boot.
The USCCB took an inflammatory stand during the massively destructive George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020, as well. Floyd was a convicted felon who died in police custody while resisting arrest with a “fatal level” of fentanyl in his system. According to USCCB President José H. Gomez, however, Floyd’s “killing” was “senseless and brutal” and a “sin that cries out to heaven for justice.” Gomez heavily insinuated Floyd’s death was racially motivated, adding that he shares in the outrage of the “black community and those who stand with them in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and across the country.”
Of course, it’s not only about what the USCCB does say, but also what it doesn’t. In November 2021, the conference famously failed to refuse Holy Communion to “Catholic” President Joe Biden and other Democrat politicians who support killing the preborn and elderly.
The bishops’ silence on the FBI report attacking traditional Catholics likely has to do in part with Church Militant — the only media organization named in the report. The FBI’s association between Church Militant and so-called violent white supremacists was unfounded and embarrassingly badly sourced, and it would be easy for the Catholic hierarchy to come to their defense.
But Church Militant is known for stridently reporting on the corruption, sexual abuse, and wokeism infecting the USCCB. Anyone familiar with the USCCB’s disdain for Church Militant knows the bishops are more likely to revel in its slander than to rebuke it.
Then there’s the Vatican, which under Pope Francis vilified the Latin Mass long before the FBI did. More than a year ago, Pope Francis implemented unprecedented and harsh restrictions on Latin Masses, prompting left-wing bishops, including liberal Cardinal Blase Cupich in Chicago, to suspend Latin Masses and even shutter church doors in the name of Francis’ new guidelines.
Latin Mass-attending Catholics tend to be traditional in their values as well as the liturgy. These are the devout Catholics who represent everything the Vatican has tried distancing itself from as it panders to left-wing globalists.
The pope was applauded by the World Economic Forum for aiding the infamous “Great Reset.” He held a secret meeting with the CEO of Pfizer and has hosted events featuring Malthusian population control organizations, anti-lifer Chelsea Clinton, and disgraced chief medical advisor to the president Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Both the Vatican and the USCCB have become complicit in U.S. government-attempted persecution of traditional Christians. They don’t want to upset their supposed allies on the political left by defending their Christian brothers. Indeed, they likely share in the left’s disdain for them.
What the corrupt members of the church hierarchy will soon realize, though, is that the cultural Marxism the United States has spiraled into has no tolerance for Christianity, traditional or otherwise. No true Catholic will be immune to what happens when the regime decides to dispose of the church. It is as the famous Martin Niemöller quote goes:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
The Catholic Church has a history of opposing amoral governments. This is why Catholics have been brutally persecuted by Communist regimes throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.
The FBI report revealed the U.S. government has already singled out traditional Christians as a threat. More abuse is sure to come, and spread to other Christian denominations as well. The bishops’ silence is deafening, and their unwillingness to defend their flock makes them undeserving of the holy positions they hold.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.
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