The FBI’s targeting of Catholics sounds “much more like Nazi Germany or communist Russia than the United States,” Bishop Joseph Strickland said.
Breitbart News’s Matthew Perdie interviewed Strickland on Thursday at CPAC 2024 in National Harbor, Maryland, about the FBI’s investigation into traditional Catholic churches.
As Breitbart News reported, a leaked memo last year from the FBI’s Richmond office stated that violent extremists’ “interest” in “radical-traditionalist Catholic” ideology was growing and that it therefore presented an opportunity for the FBI to engage with certain churches in an attempt to goad the churches’ leadership into serving as FBI “tripwires,” who would operate like unofficial informants to the FBI. House Republicans have since discovered that multiple field offices appeared to be involved in crafting the memo and that the FBI allegedly interviewed a priest and a church choir director.
Perdie asked Strickland — a fierce Pope Francis critic who has been “relieved” by the Vatican for “undermining the faith” — why he thinks the FBI decided to investigate Catholic Latin mass goers.
“Well, I really don’t claim to have the answer for why they would do this, but I do see it as a sad symptom of a society that sounds too much more like Nazi Germany or communist Russia than the United States,” Strickland said.
Phil Thiltrickett, an opponent of an abortion, holds a rosary as he prays outside a Planned Parenthood Clinic. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)
“Freedom of speech, freedom of religion — all of those freedom issues seem to be bound up in this … I think the FBI has been weaponized to go after people who simply believe deeply in the message of Jesus Christ and believe in the truth that He’s revealed,” he continued. “And sadly, in the nation and really in the world, even in the Catholic Church, we’re having a lot of people not so sure about this truth that God has revealed through his Son Jesus Christ.”
Strickland added that the FBI’s actions are a “symptom” of a “nation that is losing its way.”
“She can always come back, but we’ve got to listen to the truth that God has revealed to us and come back to those foundation stones and not use government agencies to attack people for living the truth,” he said. “If we’re afraid of the truth, then we’ve got more to fear than any individual who may be standing for that truth.”
Perdie also asked Strickland if he thinks the FBI targeted traditional Catholics, in part, because of their more conservative pro-life and pro-family values.
“Oh, absolutely,” Strickland replied.
“The Catholic Church is, and should be, totally opposed to this woke agenda … The Catholic Church should reject [the woke agenda] because it’s a rejection of God. It’s a rejection of who we are: created in the image and likeness of God,” he said.
Strickland added that tyrannical leaders are “threatened by those who stand for the truth and won’t budge.”
“So their mission is to try to get rid of those who stand for the truth,” he said. “It won’t be accomplished any more than in Nazi Germany. They tried to eliminate [people] and have one pristine Aryan race. Did it work? No, because it was based on false ideals of a broken humanity.”
“The same thing with communism — any of these ideologies that ignore God,” he continued.
Strickland concluded by encouraging Americans to stand for the truth in a sea of lies.
“I think it’s natural that those standing for that truth are going to be seen as a threat to this agenda,” he said. “Just as we look to Nazi Germany or to the communist state of Stalin: how many people died because they said no to those despotic regimes? The same thing is going to happen here, but we have to speak against the false messages — no matter how many hearts and minds the false message captures.”
