Lots of Eyeballs

TRANSCRIPT
 

That FBI report discussing Church Militant and naming some other groups in a list in the appendix is getting a lot of attention — increased attention. The New York Post just recently published its analysis of it, as did The Signal and The Washington Post, including an insightful follow-up piece by The Federalist. There's a portion of the Federalist piece we'd like to highlight for you because we think the publication may be onto something.

The context of the passage is that the U.S. bishops' conference has still not said anything publicly about the FBI dossier — which is beyond strange. In fact, the only bishop to say anything is the bishop whose diocese is home to the local field office that produced the dossier — Richmond.

Bishop Barry Knestout of that Richmond diocese only released a statement after a phone-call campaign by faithful Catholics to his office demanding he say something. So days after the report was leaked and it was gaining media traction and that call-in campaign, he reluctantly released a statement saying what the FBI did was bad. Thanks, Bishop.

But as we said, the Federalist piece has an interesting take on why the bishops may have just ignored this whole story. Here's the relevant passage from the article entitled "U.S. Bishops Silent After FBI Claims Conservative Catholics Are 'White Supremacists'":

The bishops' silence on the FBI report attacking traditional Catholics likely has to do in part with Church Militant — the only media organization named in the report. The FBI's association between Church Militant and so-called violent white supremacists was unfounded and embarassingly badly sourced, and it would be easy for the Catholic hierarchy to come to their defense. But Church Militant is known for stridently reporting on the corruption, sexual abuse, and wokeism infecting the USCCB. Anyone familiar with the USCCB's disdain for Church Militant knows the bishops are more likely to revel in its slander than to rebuke it.

That is a very important insight on multiple levels. Couple that with the all-but-proven-in-a-court-of-law connection between the bishops' behind-the-scenes maneuvering to get our 2021 Baltimore Rally protest against them canceled by the city and the ensuing federal lawsuit that we won — twice — and a pattern begins to emerge.

But wait — there's more. In 2017, in a Vatican-approved publication, La Civiltà Cattolica, extremely close papal confidante, Jesuit priest Fr. Antonio Spadaro wrote a slanderous article naming Church Militant specifically. The article was entitled "Evangelical Fundamentalism and Catholic Integralism: A Surprising Ecumenism." The point of the piece was to insist that faithful Catholics joining up politically with conservative Evangelicals were forming what Spadaro labeled "an ecumenism of hate."

There is a shocking rhetoric used, for example, by the writers of Church Militant, a successful US-based digital platform that is openly in favor of a political ultraconservatism and uses Christian symbols to impose itself. This abuse is called 'authentic Christianity.' And to show its own preferences, it has created a close analogy between Donald Trump and Emperor Constantine, and between Hillary Clinton and Diocletian. The American elections in this perspective were seen as a 'spiritual war.' This warlike and militant approach seems most attractive and evocative to a certain public, especially given that the victory of Constantine — it was presumed impossible for him to beat Maxentius and the Roman establishment — had to be attributed to a divine intervention: in hoc signo vinces.

We'll just let that sit there. Later on, during a trip to Africa visiting Jesuit seminarians, Pope Francis himself pointed to that specific article and recommended it to his listeners. One wonders why Jesuit seminarians in Africa would have any concern about the productions of Church Militant on the other side of the world talking about American politics. But — oh, well — it is a universal Church, right?

All of this is to say that the lefties in the Church as well as the Church of Nice establishment have had the long knives out for Church Militant for many years now. That they sit silently by when faithful American Catholics are targeted by their own government and slandered cannot come as a surprise.

In fact, you have to come to expect it. It's part of the price for saying out loud what the bishops long ago gave up saying themselves. In hoc signo evinces — indeed.