FBI Warns Against ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology’ in Internal Memo

The FBI’s Richmond field office released an internal memo in January, warning of the potential dangers posed by “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology.”

A former FBI special agent, Kyle Seraphin, who was suspended without pay in June 2022, shared the document, titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.

The memo states, “In making this assessment, FBI Richmond relied on the key assumption that [racially or ethnically motivated extremists] will continue to find [radical-traditionalist Catholic or RTC] ideology attractive and will continue to attempt to connect with RTC adherents, both virtually via social media and in-person at places of worship.”

It goes on to describe RTC as a group that “rejects the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid church council,” holds disdain for popes elected after Vatican II, and often holds anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist beliefs. The memo makes a distinction between RTC and traditionalist Catholics, who “prefer the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings and traditions, without the more extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric.”

The memo cites the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a source, which has faced criticism for including conservative nonprofits on its list of “hate groups.” The memo notes that the SPLC identified nine RTC hate groups operating in the US as of 2021.

Kyle Seraphin spoke out against the report, saying, “We got briefings that SPLC was not legitimate when I was at Quantico.” He added that a “real intelligence product would quote [SPLC] and say, ‘unsubstantiated.'”

Former supervisory intelligence analyst for the FBI, George Hill, also expressed concerns about the report, stating, “The report is poorly sourced from sources who use unsubstantiated data to draw their own conclusions and not in compliance with FBI publication guidelines.” He added that the author and their supervisor who approved the final document either knowingly violated the FBI’s guidelines, or the guidelines had changed since Hill left the bureau.

via Yahoo