Oh, Come On!

     It’s all getting to be a bit much:

     A memo by the F.B.I. warning of possible threats posed by “radical-traditionalist” Catholics violated professional standards but showed “no evidence of malicious intent,” according to an internal Justice Department inquiry made public on Thursday.
     The assessment by the Justice Department’s watchdog found that agents in the F.B.I.’s office in Richmond, Va., improperly conflated the religious beliefs of activists with the likelihood they would engage in domestic terrorism, making it appear as if they were being targeted for the faith.
     But after a 120-day review of the incident ordered by Congress, Michael E. Horowitz, the department’s inspector general — drawing from the F.B.I. report and interviews conducted by his own investigators — found no evidence that “anyone ordered or directed” anyone to investigate Catholics because of their religion.

     That’s from the New York Times. Be aware that:

• The FBI specifically noted a preference for the Tridentine (i.e., Latin) Mass and a low opinion of the Second Ecumenical Council (a.k.a. “Vatican II”);
• The other “signs of extremism” the FBI enumerated were all straightforward Catholic teachings:
  • The way to heaven is through Jesus Christ alone;
  • Abortion is morally wrong;
  • LGBTQ practices are also morally wrong.
• The targeting of Catholics was explicit, founded on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s listing of “Catholic hate groups.”

     The “Richmond memo” that details the FBI’s reasons for “infiltrating” Catholic congregations is here. Suit yourself that I’m not exaggerating.

     Just this past Wednesday, former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin wrote feelingly on the subject:

     “This is what being stabbed in the back feels like,” I thought to myself on that winter day when I first laid eyes on the FBI’s anti-Catholic “Richmond memo.”
     My reaction was predictable. I am Catholic, and I thought it was appalling, plain and simple.
     Of all the groups our top federal law enforcement agency would write an 11-page document targeting, they picked us. With all of the crime going on in the country, especially in the last few years, the FBI decided we Catholics were the problem.
     “Radical-traditionalist,” I thought, trying to make sense of the term the FBI used more than 40 times throughout the memo. It was certainly not a term I had ever heard before in the counterterrorism space.
     Who is a “radical-traditionalist Catholic?” (Let’s call them “RTC” for short.)
     I’m friends with people who love the Latin Mass. I attended a traditional school where I learned Latin from fifth grade through high school.
     Are they RTCs? Am I?

     It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the praetorians of the Usurper Regime dislike persons who hold to traditional moral and ethical standards. (Frankly, it was rather a surprise that the “Richmond memo” didn’t also catechize us for being against unrestrained rioting and looting.) Those standards are diametrically opposed to the rash of lunacy that’s recently swept over these United States. As Seraphin points out, it’s not just Catholics that hold to those norms; Christians generally subscribe to them, as do most observant Jews and most religiously indifferent Americans.

     But the Justice Department claims that it has “investigated” the FBI and found that the FBI had “no malicious intent” in categorizing Catholics as potential domestic terrorists. Well, that should settle that, then. It seems to have satisfied the Times.

     Words fail me.