{"id":332533,"date":"2025-06-09T12:40:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=332533"},"modified":"2025-06-07T01:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T06:02:08","slug":"fbi-memo-pro-life-catholics-widely-circulated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fbi-memo-pro-life-catholics-widely-circulated\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI memo targeting pro-life Catholics more widely circulated than first assumed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>An FBI memo targeting pro-life Catholics during the Biden administration was distributed to thousands of field agents \u2014\u00a0far more than were originally disclosed when news of the memo became public.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>KEY TAKEAWAYS:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>A leaked FBI memo labeling certain traditional Catholics as &#8216;far-right&#8217; and even &#8216;violent&#8217; was distributed to over 1,000 field agents in the U.S., with similar language found in other FBI documents.<\/li>\n<li>The FBI took its cues from the Southern Poverty Law Center, known for labeling conservative and\/or Christian groups as &#8220;hate groups.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>THE DETAILS:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In 2023, an FBI memo was <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fbi-document-targeting-pro-life-catholics\/\">leaked<\/a>, revealing that people labeled as \u201cradical traditionalist\u201d Catholics were under investigation for possible ties to the \u201cfar-right white nationalist movement\u201d \u2014 allegedly including those holding &#8220;violent&#8221; pro-life views.<\/p>\n<p>It has since come to light that the FBI memo was used not in just one field office, but was also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/news\/catholic-leaders-sound-alarm-over-fbis-national-campaign-targeting-faithful\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">distributed<\/a> to over <em>1,000<\/em> field agents around the country. The anti-Catholic language was also found in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/264545\/senate-judiciary-committee-anti-catholic-texts-found-in-13-more-biden-era-fbi-documents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">multiple FBI documents<\/a>. Field offices in Louisville, Portland, Buffalo, Phoenix, and Milwaukee were known to have been consulted or given the memo, and not all agents were receptive.<\/p>\n<p>On June 3, Senator Chuck Grassley issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grassley.senate.gov\/news\/news-releases\/grassley-oversight-unveils-disturbing-extent-of-fbis-anti-catholic-bias\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a> calling for the FBI to release any other information related to the Richmond memo, and also sent a letter to current FBI Director Kash Patel demanding action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m determined to get to the bottom of the Richmond memo,&#8221; Grassley said, &#8220;and of the FBI\u2019s contempt for oversight in the last administration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>THE BACKSTORY:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It was the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) who labeled the so-called &#8220;Radical Traditional Catholicism Hate Groups.&#8221; FBI agents sent e-mails regarding the memo, asking questions like, \u201cIs anyone really asking for a product like this?\u201d along with complaints unhappy that \u201capparently we are at the behest of the SPLC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another agent replied, \u201cYeah, our overreliance on the SPLC hate designations is \u2026 problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The SPLC has <a href=\"https:\/\/adflegal.org\/setting-the-record-straight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">become controversial<\/a> for its overt left-wing bias, with a former employee describing it as \u201ca highly profitable scam.\u201d A federal judge pointed out that their hate-group label does not \u201cdepend upon objective data or evidence\u201d and is \u201centirely subjective.\u201d Though the group had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/progressivism\/heritage-explains\/what-went-wrong-the-southern-poverty-law-center\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prestigious and laudable beginnings<\/a>, it has since become little more than a liberal smear machine.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>GO DEEPER:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A similar controversy was discovered in the Army during the Biden administration, in which training slides labeled pro-life Americans as <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/army-training-pro-lifers-terrorists-7-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">terrorists<\/a>; in this case and that of the memo, even after the scandals became public, it took years to reveal the true extent of the damage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/G3Bhv6M\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-332271\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-700x251.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-300x107.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-768x275.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02-500x179.jpg 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/LA25DefundPP_EmailBannerAd-02.jpg 1167w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An FBI memo targeting pro-life Catholics during the Biden administration was distributed to thousands of field agents \u2014\u00a0far more than were originally disclosed when news of the memo became public. KEY TAKEAWAYS: A leaked FBI memo labeling certain traditional Catholics as &#8216;far-right&#8217; and even &#8216;violent&#8217; was distributed to over 1,000 field agents in the U.S., [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":277361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3473,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FBI memo targeting pro-life Catholics more widely circulated than first assumed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An FBI memo targeting pro-life Catholics during the Biden administration was sent to thousands of agents -\u00a0far more than originally disclosed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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