Carol Rhodes is a member of an outside-based conservative Catholic media group. She was surprised to discover that it was just one of nine traditional Catholic groups. being Cite by the FBI Extremist and radical.
“We don’t hate anyone. We’re very peaceful,” Rhodes is a member the Traditional Catholic Media Site Church Militant, The Post. “This is America. We have the right to practice our faith. It was really over the top to hear all this. This is crazy and doesn’t make any sense.”
An eight-page dossier leaked by former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin This month’s earlier announcements indicated this: the FBI’s Richmond, Va., office, at the At the behest the Department of Justice was being pursued “radical traditionalist” Catholics Possible ties between them “the far-right white nationalist movement.”
“The FBI’s Richmond Division would like to protect Virginians from the threat of ‘white supremacy,’ which it believes has found a home within Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass,” Seraphin wrote Uncoverdc.comHe leaked at the address the memo.
It was assembled with assistance from the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s list of alleged “hate groups” After a backlash from the media, it was deleted. It was unclear if the memo meant to be called “a Catholic memo”. “rad-trad” Catholics That the FBI was targeting — or traditional Catholics People who like the Latin Mass also available.
The Post was told by Seraphin that he saw the first time he saw it. the He thought that it was an excellent memo “appalling” Violation of the 1st Amendment.
“As a Catholic and a former Agent, it was yet another example of the FBI trying to pick winners and losers in an arena it is forbidden to engage in,” Seraphin spoke. “It also shows how woefully out of touch the FBI’s intel cadre are compared to regular people who never consider this type of connection between Catholics and white supremacists remotely fathomable.”
Also, chief law enforcement officers of 20 states were sent to the meeting. letter Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General condemned last week what they called the “anti-Catholic” document.
“The memorandum deploys alarmingly detailed theological distinctions to distinguish between the Catholics whom the FBI deems acceptable, and those it does not,” the Let the letter be read.
However the According to many traditional sources, there was damage. Catholics Interviewed by The Post.
“It’s an empty accusation of the SPLC and I wonder why the FBI uses such a biased organization as the source of the document,” said Atila Sinke Guimarães of Tradition in Action, one of the Groups mentioned in the memo.
Guimarães wrote on the group’s news site that it’s not the First time Tradition in Action was targeted by the SPLC, adding “what this new episode reflects is that we are leaving the regime of democratic liberty and respect for one’s beliefs and entering the dark zone of a growing dictatorship.”
Traditional is the majority Catholics You shouldn’t agree to all, or even most of the following: the Introduced reforms by the Second Vatican Council, and worship instead according to the traditional Roman Catholic rites the Extraordinary Type of the Mass.
Mel Gibson is also included in the group. He has spoken out about his experiences. “traditionalist” Catholic beliefs and even his own Church in the hills above Malibu — where the Congregation follows the Roman Catholic faith, as it existed before the Reforms and modernization by the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965
Mel’s father, Hutton Gibson, who died at Age 101 was the age when it was designated an “extremist” His radical Catholic beliefs in his obituary The New York Times. His family moved from the US, Australia 1968. He started his own Catholic splinter organization. the Alliance for Catholic Tradition
”I go to an all-pre-Vatican II Latin mass,” Hutton told The Sunday Review in 2001. “There was a lot of talk, particularly in the ’60s, of ‘Wow, we’ve got to change with the times.’ But the Creator instituted something very specific, and we can’t just go change it.”
Bill Donohue is president the Catholic League the FBI Needs to have higher priorities
“Antifa is a threat, BLM is a threat,” Donohue said. “That’s where the FBI should focus. These people [traditional Catholics] are nice people. They’re not a violent threat to America … Who the hell is the FBI to stick their nose in their business? It’s ridiculous.”
Michael Voris (an Emmy-winning CBS News producer and now head of Church Militant), was dismissed the FBI Memo as misguided or erroneous
“The FBI report is based on ‘reporting’ by far-left extremist groups and media outlets that demonstrate zero understanding of Catholic theology,” Voris said in a statement. “Those voluminous errors then found their way into this FBI report where flat-out false conclusions are drawn. Church Militant … in no way hates women, Blacks, Jews, immigrants or anyone else we may be accused of hating. To disagree with social or political points of view does not signify ‘hate.’ It signifies disagreement.”
The Church Militant site is named after the Catholic Doctrinal Distinctions the The universal Church the Church Militant, Church Penitent, and Church Triumphant. It does not have any military implications. the More information about the phrase the Biblical fighting the Flesh and the devil.
Traditional traditions are under attack Catholics don’t just come from the FBI, however.
Pope Francis released a document in 2021 “Traditionis Custodes,” This was done to curb where and how. the Old Masses can still be celebrated He upset the traditional Catholics This summer, he criticised them for not being with him all the time. the Vatican II reforms “I do not see how it is possible to say that one recognizes the validity of the Council — though it amazes me that a Catholic might presume not to do so — and at the same time not accept the liturgical reform,” the Pontiff wrote.
“These are people who prefer the older version of the Catholic mass in Latin and are more traditional when it comes to moral stances,” Father John Baldovin (a professor). at the The Post was informed by Boston College of Theology and Ministry. “Traditional Catholics can be very passionate but they’re not a threat and they’re not a group who should be targeted. Traditional Catholicism does represent something which is socially more stable for people which can be attractive in an unstable world.”
