The big Catholic news story of late concerns a leaked internal FBI document targeting traditional Catholics.

The document, which originated in the FBI’s Richmond field office and is dated 23 January 2023, provides a list of “the nine RTC (radical-traditionalist Catholic) hate groups operating in the United States in 2021 as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center” (SPLC). The list is as follows:

• Catholic Apologetics International

• Catholic Family News/Catholic Family Ministries, Inc.

• Christ or Chaos

• Culture Wars/Fidelity Press

• Fatima Crusader, The/International Fatima Rosary Crusade

• In the Spirit of Chartres Committee

• Remnant, The/The Remnant Press

• Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

• Tradition in Action

Many commentators have expressed shock and outrage that the FBI cites the radical-leftist SPLC as an expert witness in such matters.

It’s actually not surprising in the least given the degree to which the political partisanship of the Bureau has been on display in recent years, but I suspect that the relationship goes back much further and is far more symbiotic than it appears.

Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist if you will (to which I will reply, thank you very much), but I believe there is good reason to suspect that the SPLC is a CIA asset. We’ll return to this topic momentarily.

The document opens by noting, “The increasingly observed interest of racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology.” The document goes on to state that the FBI believes that this interest “is likely to increase over the next 12-24 months.”

As for how this interest has been observed, the document reveals that this assessment is based on “FBI investigations, local law enforcement agency reporting, and liaison reporting.”

The document warns that “RMVEs will continue to find 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.”

The situation as described, according to the FBI, “presents opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues tripwire and source development.” In other words, it will be used as an excuse for investigating (and frustrating) the activities of law abiding "traditional" Catholics.

At this, some definitions are in order.

Firstly: In order to grasp at the relevance of the leaked document, one must be clear that it isn’t an essay; it’s an intelligence product, a briefing written specifically for the benefit of those who operate in that world.

As such, its language is often precise, with certain of its words and phrases drawn directly from the intelligence community’s lexicon. To the extent that we can, we should attempt to read it and understand it as such.

For example, where the document speaks of “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs),” we need to consider that the author isn’t just playing wordsmith. In the intelligence world, RMVEs are no joke, i.e., they’re not just a loosely organized collection of sketchy malcontent wannabes.

On April 29, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism of the Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing on “Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism” (RMVE).

At this hearing, when asked to comment on the government’s “ability to designate these violent RMVEs” with “sufficient credible information that meets standards for designation,” John T. Godfrey, U.S. State Department Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism, offered the following reply:

In order to designate a group [as an RMVE], we have to be able to demonstrate that it is engaged in terrorist activity, and that is defined as having a capacity and an intent to carry out terrorist activity.

NB: With this definition in mind, we can summarize the leaked document, such as we’ve examined it thus far, to state the following:

Local and Federal law enforcement agencies have determined that groups presently engaged in terrorist activity are actively attempting to connect with traditional Catholics, both virtually and in-person at places of worship.

Is this true, or is this just another Russiagate style “investigation” designed to produce a totally fabricated, predetermined finding as a means to an unstated end? You decide.

Speaking for myself – despite more than a decade of membership in a traditional parish and having logged just as many years of activity in traditional Catholic media, including direct interaction and collaboration with several of the “hate groups” named above – I reckon I’ve not encountered even one violent extremist terrorist.

Now, let’s see if we can get our hands around what the intelligence community means by “hate group.”

This proves a bit more difficult. Whereas RMVE has a very precise meaning, “hate group” does not. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suggests that this is so because “the term is complex” (see below).

This, to be certain, is by design as the definition can be tailored to fit whomever the government wishes to target (e.g., conspiracy theorist, racist, anti-Semite, etc.).

That said, DHS does provide a working definition:

The term hate group is frequently used but rarely defined. The term is complex and refers to "any organized group whose beliefs and actions are rooted in enmity towards an entire class of people based on ethnicity, perceived race, sexual orientation, religion, or other inherent characteristic.”

Enmity… a word one rarely hears spoken in ordinary discourse. Where have we encountered it before?

I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. (Gen 3:15)

Again, call me what you will, but I would suggest that the choice of words here is not coincidental, even if the author of the text was personally unaware.

You see, Satan in his arrogance demands public worship. This, as a way of mocking Christ the King, He toward whom every person is duty bound to offer public worship.

The Evil One inspires his minions to give this public worship in various ways, sometimes merely by hint (as above), but at other times more blatantly (e.g., the demonic performance at the recent Grammy Awards sponsored by your friends at Pfizer.)

With this in mind, the definition of “hate group” as offered by the DHS provides a rare moment of honesty: The target of their operation in this particular case can be well understood as those who belong to the seed of the woman.

That the SPLC and FBI label traditional Catholics as a “hate group” is a sure indication of their true identity as “those that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” Woe to them! (cf Isa 5:20)

This brings us to the definition of “radical traditional Catholic” (RTC) as understood by the FBI. Fortunately, it is provided in the footnotes to the leaked document:

RTCs are typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) as a valid church council; disdain for most of the popes elected since Vatican II, particularly Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II; and frequent adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology. Radical-traditionalist Catholics compose a small minority of overall Roman Catholic adherents and are separate and distinct from “traditionalist Catholics” who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings and traditions, but without the more extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric.

Pay no attention to the proposed difference between RTCs and those attached to the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-conciliar doctrine; they are one and the same. As for "white supremacist ideology," this is a wholesale, slanderous lie. On any given Holy Day, my FSSP parish, for instance, is well populated with minorities and mixed race couples.

The FBI footnote goes on to cite certain “significant reforms” that took place as a result of Vatican II – the same that traditional Catholics reject – including conciliar “attitudes toward non-Christian religions” and “views on religious freedom.”

IMPORTANT: The “significant reforms” that came forth from the Second Vatican Council were themselves the result of a U.S. intelligence operation, one that implemented a program called “doctrinal warfare,” the father of which was a man by the name of Edward Lilly, a wealthy Catholic from an elite family who was a member of the U.S. National Security Council from 1952-1965.

As documented extensively by David Wemoff in his 900-page exposé, John Courtney Murray, Time/Life and the American Proposition : How the CIA's Doctrinal Warfare Program Changed the Catholic Church, the doctrinal warfare program was used by the CIA in an attempt to undermine traditional Catholicism from within, most notably at Vatican II. Why? Because U.S. intelligence considered authentic Catholicism an “opposition system” that stood in the way of so-called American interests.

In a 2020 presentation, Wemoff states:

The CIA and the American intelligence community was interested in advancing heresies, or alternative theological bases, within the Catholic Church to promote the First Amendment as a system of social organization. (see 28:00 mark)

Make no mistake, the American intelligence community – including the FBI, DHS, CIA – is still determined to subvert every expression of authentic Catholic belief and action, but the reason, properly speaking, is neither to promote nor to export the social organizing principles set forth in the U.S. Constitution. In fact, I’d say that it never really was about that; the First Amendment is but a means to an end.

Today, as we are becoming ever more aware, the phrase “American interests” is a misnomer invoked to inspire patriotic fervor as a tool for garnering public support, swaying public opinion, and controlling the citizenry. As understood by the wealthy elites and Deep State operatives that are driving the process, “American interests” are anything but American, they are synonymous with globalist interests.

Having covered this ground, I wonder if my suspicion that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a CIA asset, if not a CIA funded operation from top to bottom, seems more reasonable. If not, consider what the SPLC plainly reveals on its website:

Joseph J. Levin, Jr., a native of Montgomery, Alabama, is co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center [1971] … In 1976, as a member of the Carter Presidential Transition Team, Levin supervised the Department of Justice transition and oversaw preparation of briefing books identifying critical issues for the incoming attorney general. He had special responsibility for analysis of Department of Justice national security oversight of the CIA, FBI, NSA, and military intelligence functions.

Clearly, Levin was already an intelligence community insider prior to being tapped by President-Elect Carter in 1976. So, which came first, his involvement in U.S. intelligence operations, or his founding of SPLC?

I suspect it was the former, but either way, these two realities overlap and only a fool would dismiss the likelihood that one serves the interests of the other, even to this day.

Now does it make more sense that the FBI would accept the SPLC’s determination as to what constitutes a “hate group” that merits the intelligence community’s attention?

In conclusion, despite reports that the FBI has retracted the leaked document, a number of things are abundantly clear:

• The U.S. intelligence operation to subvert authentic (so-called “traditional”) Catholicism, with the hope of so altering the Faith from within as to obliterate it, began prior to Vatican II.

• The Council’s grave departures from immutable Catholic doctrine are the fruit of that operation.

• The anti-Catholic U.S. intelligence operation is on-going.

• This operation is being carried out in support of globalist interests.

• Just as sure as the one true Church of Christ is indefectible, that operation will fail.

Even though we should take comfort in this final point, we must prepare ourselves for suffering at the hands of Our Lord’s enemies. It is coming. Of this we can also be sure.