FBI Caught Spying on Virginia Catholic Church

Democrat President Joe Biden’s FBI has been caught spying on a Catholic Church in Virginia, according to reports.

The spying revelation comes after Slay News previously reported that the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) have been targeting traditional Catholics.

In February, it emerged that the FBI sent out a memo warning agents of the dangerous “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology” that was gaining popularity in the country.

The memo was posted at UncoverDC.com by former FBI special agent Kyle Seraphin.

Seraphin last year was suspended indefinitely from the FBI without pay after stepping forward as a whistleblower. He alleged that the FBI is trying to hide how many man-hours they used on the Jan. 6 investigation.

Before his suspension, Seraphin had worked at the FBI’s Richmond office for six years.

Now new information has revealed that the FBI is infiltrating Catholic churches. Two parishioners at a Latin Mass Catholic church in rural Northern Virginia say they witnessed suspicious activity from what looked like FBI vehicles in February. The sighting was a month after the FBI’s Richmond office published the now-rescinded internal memo focused on “radical-traditional Catholics.”

The FBI’s Washington, D.C. office, which monitors the church’s area, denied any knowledge of such activity in a statement to The Daily Signal.

The two witnesses told the outlet that they saw two cars approach the church, drive through the parking lot as if they were writing down license plate numbers, and then leave.

They said the agents were spotted on two separate instances outside Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel in Linden, Virginia, some 63 miles west of Washington, D.C., between Feb. 12 and Feb. 26.

The FBI memo had been published on Jan. 23 and rescinded on Feb. 9.

“I saw a black Ford car with dark tinted windows and a knoblike antenna on the top,” one parishioner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Signal.

“It was driving very slowly by all the cars, and I could see a laptop in the center front.”

“I could not see the person inside, and no one ever got out,” the witness added. “They did leave as soon as they saw me looking at them.”

“I saw a white [Chevrolet] Tahoe car, with very tinted windows and lots of antennas, driving slowly through the parking lot,” the other anonymous witness revealed. Looked like a male,” they recalled.

“He had an open laptop in the middle of the car, not sure if he was typing, as the window was very dark.”

“He never got out of the car, but by the time I saw him, he was on his way out, and drove back towards the highway after pulling through,” the second parishioner added.

“Not sure how long he was out there, as we were all inside.

“Everyone else was still inside the chapel, so he must have been going around while we were all inside at Mass/catechism.”

“I suspect that it was the FBI,” the witness added.

“However, I could not confirm, since he never got out of the car.”

The witnesses reached out to The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project with the information.

Sacred Heart of Mary Chapel is affiliated with the Society of Saint Pius X, a traditional international priestly society that comprises almost 700 priests and supports the Latin Mass.

“The Washington Field Office is not aware of that activity,” the FBI national office, speaking on behalf of its satellite location in D.C., told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement.

The incidents took place about a month after the FBI published an internal memo urging agents to develop “sources with access,” including in “places of worship,” to probe an alleged relationship between “racially or ethnically motivated, violent extremists” and “radical-traditional Catholic ideology.”

The memo, dated January 23, cited the Southern Poverty Law Center, a left-leaning litigation nonprofit infamous for branding mainstream conservative and Christian organizations “hate groups,” placing them on a map alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

The FBI document warns that such “extremism” will likely increase in the run-up to the next general elections.

After a whistleblower published the memo on February 8, the FBI’s national office rescinded it on Feb. 9.

“While our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products, this particular field office product—disseminated only within the FBI—regarding racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI,” the FBI said at the time.

“Upon learning of the document, FBI headquarters quickly began taking action to remove the document from FBI systems and conduct a review of the basis for the document,” the bureau added.

“The FBI is committed to sound analytic tradecraft and to investigating and preventing acts of violence and other crimes, while upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and will never conduct investigative activities or open an investigation based solely on First Amendment-protected activity.”

“Well, first, let me say that when I first learned of the piece, I was aghast,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the time.

“And we took steps immediately to withdraw it and remove it from FBI systems.

“It does not reflect FBI standards.”

“We do not conduct investigations based on religious affiliation or practices, full stop,” Wray added.

“We have also now ordered our inspection division to take a look at how this happened and try to figure out how we can make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.

“I will note, it was a product by one field office, which of course we have scores and scores of these products, and when we found out about it, we took action.”

“We do not and will not target people for religious beliefs, and we do not and will not monitor people’s religious practices,” he added.

“That’s not acceptable.”