• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
The Federal Bureau of Investigation seal is seen at FBI headquarters before a 2018 news conference in Washington. A GOP senator alleged that a controversial and retracted FBI memo that used "anti-Catholic terminology" had been distributed to over 1,000 FBI agents. (OSV News photo/Yuri Gripas, Reuters). Editors: NEW caption

FBI memo with ‘anti-Catholic terminology’ said to be distributed to over 1,000 FBI agents

June 4, 2025
By Kate Scanlon
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, News, Religious Freedom, Uncategorized, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Amid an investigation into a controversial and retracted FBI memo that suggested some “radical traditionalist” Catholics pose threats of racial or ethnically motivated violence, a GOP senator alleged the FBI distributed the memo that “used anti-Catholic terminology” more widely than previously known.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote in a June 2 letter to FBI Director Kash Patel that the memo was “widely distributed” within the bureau before it was retracted, including in consultations by the authors with agents in the Louisville, Kentucky, Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee field offices.

“I’m determined to get to the bottom of the Richmond memo, and of the FBI’s contempt for oversight in the last administration,” Grassley wrote. “I look forward to continuing to work with you to restore the FBI to excellence and prove once again that justice can and must be fairly and evenly administered, blind to whether we are Democrats or Republicans, believers or nonbelievers.”

Grassley’s office June 2 released the letter as well as additional documents it said showed the controversial so-called Richmond memo, from the agency’s Virginia field office, “was widely distributed to over 1,000 FBI employees across the country before it was publicly disclosed by a whistleblower in 2023.”

A spokesperson for the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News. But Patel appeared to acknowledge Grassley’s letter by retweeting a post on X calling him “a key partner in the Bureau’s commitment to transparency.”

A 2024 review by the Department of Justice’s watchdog found “no evidence” of religious bias in the creation of the leaked and retracted memo dated Jan. 23, 2023. In that memo, an analyst at the FBI’s Richmond division said that “Radical Traditionalist Catholics” are “typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council,” adding the ideology can include an “adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology.”

While the memo differentiated between “radical traditionalist” Catholics as “separate and distinct” from “traditionalist Catholics” — or Catholics who “simply prefer the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings” — some accused the bureau of labeling Catholics as a whole as a threat or unfairly scrutinizing their worship, and accused the Biden administration of orchestrating improper religious surveillance.

The memo was retracted and condemned by both then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, the latter of whom was initially appointed to the post by President Donald Trump during his first term.

While some of the groups named in the withdrawn FBI memo identify as Catholic, some have taken positions flouting either the Catholic Church’s leadership or its official teachings — including one group denounced by its local bishop as “blatantly antisemitic” and forbidden by the Vatican from calling itself Catholic.

The original memo cited the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors “hate groups” but has faced criticism from some who say the group too widely applies that label. A spokesperson for that group told OSV News in 2023 that there is “a stark difference between traditionalist Catholics — who celebrate the Latin Mass and rebuff many of the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council — and the radical traditionalist Catholics tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

Read More Religious Freedom

Kidnapped Nigerian priest who served in Alaska freed

Huckabee demands Israel punish settlers for ‘act of terror’ on West Bank church

Myanmar opposition court sentences 9 men to 20 years for killing priest

FBI to investigate anti-Catholic, antisemitic vandalism at Pittsburgh area church

Proof of life for kidnapped Nigerian priest received by Alaska diocese where he served

Mahmoud v. Taylor: A Supreme Court victory for parents, freedom

Copyright © 2025 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Kate Scanlon

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz

| Latest Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Latest World News |

New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program

Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options

Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids

FBI surveilled SSPX priest amid probe of suspected neo-Nazi’s plans for violence

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary
  • LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids
  • FBI surveilled SSPX priest amid probe of suspected neo-Nazi’s plans for violence
  • Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives
  • Our faith is not afraid of questions
  • Catholic ‘American Ninja Warrior’ fights world hunger, one obstacle at a time
  • Parishes need to launch ‘revolution of care’ for the elderly, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en