The FBI was completely correct to keep an eye on Catholics

For years, the public has known President Joe Biden’s FBI sent spies to keep tabs on traditional Catholics. At the time of those whistleblower revelations, it caused a good deal of righteous anger, but both Director Christopher Wray and the Democrats claimed it was an isolated incident that was completely against the bureau’s policies.

Well, that turns out to be untrue: The FBI memo casting traditionally minded Catholics as dangerous was shared far and wide — to more than 1,000 agents. This confirmation fits neatly with the Democrats’ increasing suspicion of faithful Christians. And more than that: They’re entirely right to be suspicious.

Faithful Catholics are not the friends of the Democrats’ agenda. And the reason doesn’t lie naturally with the Church, but with those who oppose its teachings.

That’s not to say it’s legal, of course — or moral, or a good place for the Democrats to be. But game recognizes game, and when you’re pushing the politics the party has openly and aggressively pushed for nearly 20 years now, the tension is natural.

The Democrats’ tension with the Church and its affiliates spilled into the open years ago. President Barack Obama sued the Little Sisters of the Poor over abortion. The late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) attacked now-Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s faith during her confirmation hearings, saying “ the dogma lives loudly within you” as if this was an impediment to being a judge.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and future Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) denounced now-federal Judge Brian Buescher’s membership in the Knights of Columbus during his own confirmation process, calling it an “extremist” organization. Hirono even said he’d have to resign his membership to be considered — a blatant contradiction of the constitutional protection against religious tests for holding government office.

All these and more are shocking to see in a free and ostensibly Christian society, but they also make sense. While the teachings of the Catholic Church (and more specifically, the policy preferences of many of its older American bishops) align with Democrats on several issues, such as the humane treatment of refugees, there are many more places where there is no alignment at all.

The Church represents the eternal. It represents divine truths, artistic beauty, freely given charity, ancient tradition, the sanctity of life and God’s inviolable creation, and salvation through faith, works, and obedience to the word of God. These things stand in direct conflict with a political movement committed to changing realities, brutalism and modern art, government “charity,” shouting your abortion, choosing your gender, “the life of Julia,” and the rejection of God’s role in our world.

This is in part why active Catholicism is gaining in popularity, not just in the United States but in France and England, too. The massive contrast between the Holy Roman Church and the ugly, militant secularism and materialism of Western liberalism couldn’t be starker. In a political world with ever-shifting truths and foundations, the Rock of St. Peter is the ultimate safe harbor.

This is why you’re seeing this more regarding Catholicism than the other Christian faiths. Increasingly secular mainline Protestant churches aside, even conservative Protestant faiths have not seen the same booms in adults seeking that harbor. It’s the same reason that despite the United States’ Protestant roots and nature, Hollywood has nearly always portrayed Christian religion as Catholic — its structure, symbols, traditions, and inflexible nature are unmatched by any Christian faith remotely its size for their public association with the ancient.

They don’t even need to be conducting exorcisms or fighting Satan! To put it plainly, even the charisma and charm of a young, high-top-sneakered evangelist on a megachurch stage is no match for the flex of old cardinals smoking cigarettes on the street. That’s why movie directors use this image over and over again.

None of this justifies exclusion from government office, let alone surveillance from domestic intelligence services. But the Democrats and secularists are correct: Faithful Catholics are not the friends of their new agenda. And the reason doesn't lie naturally with the Church, but with those who oppose its teachings.

The New York Times: America’s new Catholic priests: Young, confident, and conservative

The Free Press: How Catholicism got cool

The Anglican: Why the Roman Catholic Church is rising in England — and what it reveals about faith in an age of uncertainty

Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter
Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford’s newsletter.