Catholic Leaders Respond to CatholicVote’s FBI Lawsuit
CV NEWS FEED // After CatholicVote on Thursday morning announced its lawsuit against the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for documents related to the targeting of American Catholics, Catholic leaders across the country began to weigh in with their support.
“The Justice Department and FBI are facing a lawsuit from a Catholic lobbying group for allegedly failing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about a memo that originated from an FBI field office that labeled Catholics as ‘violent extremists,’” FOX News reported Thursday:
According to the complaint, the groups were requesting text and email communications between DOJ and FBI officials that included terms like “Catholics, “Latin Mass,” “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics,” “Pope Francis” and “Rosary,” among others.
Former FBI Agent Kyle Seraphin, who is a Catholic himself and has aided in exposing the scandal-plagued agency, tweeted his approval of the lawsuit.
“The reason people can’t trust the FBI and DOJ is because they refuse to behave like trustworthy and auditable agencies under the FOIA [Freedom of Information Act],” Seraphin wrote. “This information belongs to the American public, not this intel agency with arrest authority.”
Seraphin added that he believes the lawsuit is the natural conclusion of the government infringing on the First Amendment right to freedom of religion. “This what happens when [the] FBI decided to ‘recruit sources’ [within] a Catholic Church in a country where we still NOMINALLY have a right to practice faith [without] our government prohibiting its free exercise,” he wrote.
Other Catholic leaders drew attention to President Joe Biden, who has touted his own Catholicism while overseeing the federal agencies embroiled in the scandal. Biden just declared that he will be a candidate for re-election in 2024 via a video released Tuesday morning.
“Joe Biden and his Attorney General Garland are ignoring the very laws they are required to enforce,” observed former Congressman Tim Huelskamp, PhD, who serves as an advisor to CatholicVote:
Their clear violation of transparency laws furthers the very real concerns and fears of Catholics across this country that the Biden regime is targeting us for what we believe. This is unconstitutional and un-American.
CatholicVote Director of Governmental Affairs Tom McClusky agreed. “Anti-Catholic bigotry has defined this administration from day one, it is well past time they are called out on it.”
Austin Ruse, a Catholic author and the president of the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), lent his support:
There is something profoundly wrong at the FBI and certainly Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. It is clear they have become deeply and dangerously political in favor of the leftwing and the Democratic Party and against ordinary Americans. C-Fam salutes the effort of CatholicVote to fight back. We will assist you in any way we can.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, also commented on the suit. “DOJ has lied and lied and lied about their Catholic targeting,” he tweeted. “Sue them.”
