The recent firing of FBI analysts by Kash Patel involved in a controversial 2023 memo targeting “radical-traditionalist Catholics” (RTCs) has reignited debates about government overreach during the Biden administration. One with eyes to see can see that during the Biden era the FBI executed a deliberate strategy to marginalize and discredit traditional Catholics who opposed progressive policies on issues like abortion, gender ideology, immigration, and socialism—tactics reminiscent of historical authoritarian methods to suppress dissenting religious communities.
The FBI Memo and Its Origins
In January 2023, the FBI’s Richmond Field Office produced an internal intelligence product titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.” The document, which drew heavily from Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) materials, portrayed traditional Catholics—those rejecting aspects of Vatican II, expressing skepticism toward recent popes, those who defend the preborn, reject the LGBTQ agenda, are anti-open borders, etc.—as potential vectors for white supremacist or violent extremist recruitment.
The FBI quickly retracted it after public exposure, with Director Christopher Wray and AG Merrick Garland distancing themselves. A DOJ Inspector General review later criticized it for poor analytic standards and conflating religion with extremism but found “no evidence of malicious intent” or anti-Catholic bias.
The Schizophrenic Man at the Center
Reporting from Headline USA and others revealed the memo stemmed from a single case: Xavier Lopez, a 24-year-old man with schizophrenia. Lopez had been on law enforcement radar since 2018 for suicide attempts, online threats, and felony vandalism. In 2022, he began attending Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Chapel in Richmond—a traditional site later named in the memo.
The FBI deployed an informant into the church specifically to monitor Lopez, citing limited opportunities to contact him elsewhere. According to the DOJ-IG report, analysts sought to substantiate links between Lopez’s views and broader Catholic traditionalism, expressing surprise at his interest in the community. Lopez faced charges including prohibited paramilitary activity and firearms possession as a felon, but evidence suggested his church interest was partly personal (e.g., seeking a girlfriend), not recruitment for attacks. No charges implicated other parishioners.
Obviously, this looked a lot like entrapment – authorities used a deeply troubled mentally ill man as a reason to place surveillance inside of the Catholic Church , then used that connection to cast suspicion on a broad group of traditional Catholics. This mirrors “Bolshevik methods” of infiltration, provocation, and smear campaigns against religious institutions opposing state ideology—historically used against the Orthodox Church, kulaks, or other dissenters in Soviet-era purges.
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