They Were Watching American Churches - 9/1/26

A new Justice Department report exposes a law enforcement agency that has been captured by ideology. A federal investigation has revealed that the FBI not only spied on American Catholics, but relied on flawed sources to do so and internally demonized Catholic ideology. In a 231-page report published on August 26th, the U.S. Department of Justice traced the origins of the infamous FBI Richmond field office memo detailing plans. to label traditionalist Catholics racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and infiltrate and surveil Catholic parishes and communities.

In 2023, under then-President Joe Biden, the memo was leaked to the public by whistleblower Kyle Serafin, igniting a firestorm of public outrage and possible First Amendment violations by the Federal Law Enforcement Agency. Then-candidate Donald Trump charged Democrats with weaponizing the FBI to target American Catholics. And promising that his administration would investigate and determine how a memo targeting American Catholics could work its way through the FBI system. According to this new report, the infamous Richmond memo originated with the theory an FBI analyst hypothesized that white supremacist violence was on the rise and that radical traditionalist Catholics were a demographic seeing significant growth in extremist ideology and violence.

Catholic Votes said the Trump administration is to be commended by releasing all this information regarding the spying of traditionalist Catholics. Meanwhile, over at The Loop, we have an article encouraging high school seniors to remember they are building a life, not just a resume, and to not neglect the present moment. Today is the feast of St. Giles, who was born to a wealthy, noble family, but after his parents' death, he gave his fortune to the poor. Giles was known for his holiness and his healing.

But he became a hermit to avoid followers. I'm Josh Mercer, editor of The Loop, taking you behind the headlines. Go to zeal.co for the rest of today's loop, and while you're at it, subscribe to get The Loop in your inbox every morning.