The disclosure that the FBI sought to infiltrate traditionalist Roman Catholic groups could provide fodder to the new House panel investigating what it calls the “weaponization” of America’s intelligence agencies. 

A leaked memo published Wednesday says the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office has seen increased interest among “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” in what it calls the “radical-traditionalist Catholic” ideology. 

The memo says that the term “radical-traditionalist Catholics” refers to those who “reject the Second Vatican Council,” which held — among many other pronouncements — that Mass could be performed in languages other than Latin. 

Pope Francis said last year a group that rejects the Second Vatican Council “longs for a bygone world” and engages in “selfishness that puts our own tastes and plans above the love that pleases God.” 

On Thursday, the new House select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government held its first hearing, which focused mostly on big tech censorship and the Justice Department describing activist parents as domestic terrorists. 

The FBI’s targeting of Catholic groups in Virginia could be a subject of inquiry for the new committee. A committee staff member told the Sun that the panel is aware of the memo but has yet to discuss whether or how to pursue the matter. 

The authors also write that “increased interest in RTC ideology almost certainly presents new opportunities for threat mitigation,” including “tripwire and source development” within the groups. 

Surveilling and infiltrating these groups, the FBI says, will be especially important in “run-up to the next general election cycle,” as social issues become more salient during presidential campaigns. The memo recommended developing “sources” within the groups in the next “12 to 24 months.” 

A 2022 report from the New York Times found that a growing number of young people and recent Catholic converts prefer the traditional Latin Mass that was standard before 1960. 

A former special agent, Kyle Seraphin, posted the memo to the whistleblower website UncoveredDC, after which the FBI disavowed the material. A spokesman for the agency told the Daily Caller it did “not meet the exacting standards of the FBI.”

The memo cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as identifying nine Catholic “hate groups” that should be of concern to the agency. The groups listed include Catholic newsletters and advocacy groups from across the country 

The document says the FBI became more aware of these “radical” Catholics as the Supreme Court considered overturning Roe v. Wade in 2021 and 2022. 

“The ongoing convergence of the far-right white nationalist movement and RTCs was further demonstrated through the increase in hostility toward abortion-rights advocates on social media sites in the run-up to and aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision,” the memo says. 

Conservative commentator Michael Knowles, who is Catholic, responded to the document’s publication: “Our evil rulers, who celebrate the slaughter of babies and castration of children, now plan to spend our tax dollars persecuting Catholics for attending Holy Mass,” he wrote.

The memo highlights judicial decisions and federal action related to “abortion rights, immigration, affirmative action, and LGBTQ protections” as catalyzing forces for reaction from these Catholic groups.