September 25, 2023 • 22 mins
In this episode, Lisa is joined by Logan Church, the National Political Director of Catholic Vote. They discuss the controversy surrounding the FBI's targeting of Catholics and the lawsuit filed by Catholic Vote against the FBI. The conversation delves into the reasons behind the targeting, the leaked memo encouraging surveillance of Catholics, and the concerns about who might be targeted next. They also touch on the broader implications of the attacks on Catholics and traditional values, including the erosion of parental rights and the push for moral relativism. Church highlights Catholic Vote's efforts in voter education and advocacy. Listen to new episodes of The Truth with Lisa Boothe every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We want to share a good friend's podcast with you
this week, Enjoy the Truth with Lisa Booth in the
Clay and Buck podcast Network. The FBI has come under
fire after a document leaked showing that the bureau was
warning that radical traditionalist Catholics pose an extremist threat. Now,
the FBI originally tried to downplay this, saying was specific
(00:20):
to the FBI's Richmond Division. Turns out that was a lie.
It's bigger than that the FBI was encouraging the spying
of Catholics in their own churches. So we'll talk to
the organization suing the FBI. That organization is Catholic Vote.
We'll talk to their national political director, Logan Church, about
that lawsuit. What you should know, what they're hoping to accomplish.
(00:43):
And also how did Joe Biden, who's supposed to be
the second Catholic president, why is his administration targeting Catholics
to the degree that they are. We're going to get
into all that with Logan Church. Stay with us. Logan,
(01:03):
thanks so much for coming on the show. I appreciate
you making the time.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, of course, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So it's kind of wild because Joe Biden is the
second Catholic to be President of the United States, yet
his administration has been targeting Catholics. Why do you think
that is?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
You know, at the end of the day, I think
that the Catholic Church has been one of the sole
proprietors of the traditionalist movement, and so the far left
has felt threatened by the Catholic Church for quite some time.
And whether that's we've seen attacks through the churches themselves
or through the school system.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And so attacks on the Catholic.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Church isn't a new thing, and it's especially not a
new thing to have politicians who claim to be Catholic
to gather votes but don't particularly vote or behave in
alignment with the Catholic Church. So it's unfortunate, but it's
also unfortunately not shocking to groups like Catholic vote.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
You know, I know you say it's not a new thing,
but have we seen it to this degree? I mean,
we all saw that FBI memo specifically targeting Catholics and
also introducing the idea of surveilling and spying on Catholics
in their own churches. I mean, have we seen that?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
No, I mean not that we know of of course,
this all started with the original leaked memo where Christopher
Ray said under oath that it was isolated to the
Richmond office and it wasn't a big deal and it
was all being shut down. And then we find out
as things start to come out, we find out that
it wasn't isolated to Richmond, and in fact, Richmond was
working with several other offices to coordinate efforts to infiltrate
(02:42):
the Catholic Church and to better understand as they called
radical traditionalist Catholics. And the truth is they're getting their
information from a biased and partisan group, the Southern Poverty
Law Center, which has Catholics traditional Catholics category as radical
traditionalist Catholics, and they have them on a list with
(03:03):
the KKK and neo Nazis. So with that being the
FBI's information, it's no wonder that they're coming after Catholics
so hard. But the truth is, throughout the entire Biden administration,
his DOJ, and his FBI have continued to just demonstrate
a disgusting pattern of contempt against you know, equal justice
under the law. And we saw that with pro life activists,
(03:26):
We've seen that with conservatives in general, with parents at
school board meetings. Now with Catholics trying to just attend mass.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know, how have Catholics responded to this so far?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I mean there's an uproar amongst Catholics, even Catholics who
don't attend Latin Mass. Not a large percentage of Catholics
actually attend a Latin Mass, but that being said, everyone
likes the freedom to be able to do so. So
I even know Catholics who attend an English Mass or
a Novis Auto Mass who are showing just concern because
(03:56):
the truth is, if they're going after, as they say,
traditional radical Catholics, now you know who's next and what
are they going to do next? And what are they
doing that we don't even know about?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, I mean that's the question, right because they were
found out about you know that memo. I believe there's
a whistleblower that you know, brought that forward. So you know,
what else is going on behind the scenes that we
don't know about. You know, how has Congress responded so far?
Do you feel like Catholics are getting enough support from
from Congress?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Actually? I do.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I mean, I'm really grateful to see the politicians that
are standing up and holding this agency and its leaders
accountable for the decisions that they've been making, especially with
this new letter that's come out, and we had a
lot of support from members like Jim Jordan and then
now Senator Rubio and the other senators that wrote this
letter to the FBI director. It's important for politicians to
(04:47):
hold these groups accountable because if they don't, no one
else can.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know and talk about this letter. You had talked
about Marco Rubio and some of the other senators. You know,
what does it say? What's the intended purpose behind it?
To get a little bit that Yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Ultimately, what they were trying to do is inquire. They
wrote the letter to the FBI Director, Christopher Ray, and
they were just inquiring about the underlying process behind this
whole controversial issue of targeting Catholics. And one of the
things that they highlighted is the mission of the FBI,
and they quoted it, it's to protect the American people
and to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And ultimately,
(05:25):
this memorandum and the process that's been going on against
Catholics does not protect the American people, nor is it
upholding the Constitution. And they were just pointing out the
fact that the FBI it's not it doesn't exist to
harass law abiding American citizens, and so they want to
know why are they doing what they're doing and what's
the purpose.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, and if these were eight members of the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, we've got Republicans Senator Mark or Rubio,
James Rish of Idaho, Susan Collins, Tom Cotton, John Corny,
and Jerry Moran, James Lankford and Mike Rounds All wrote
what you just pointed out in this letter. Do you
feel like we've gotten any answers from Christopher Ray or
(06:05):
from the FBI and or the Department of Justice on
you know, how that even happened from to begin with.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
No, I mean ultimately, you know, Catholic Vote's been in
a lawsuit with the FBI since this all started, since
the original leak, and the truth is even on our front.
It's like this run around game where they're just playing
the system that they wrote, and it's really difficult because
groups like Catholic Vote and just the American people, you know,
we just want transparency, we want the truth, and there's
(06:31):
obviously more to this story than than they're sharing, because
why else are they keeping the information so secretive, and
so I think they're hoping if it's a long drawn
out process and they're slowly releasing redactive files, that it'll
just taper off and you know it won't be one
big blow up.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And so Catholic vote. You guys had filed this lawsuit
in April, I believe, a FOIA request trying to get
some additional information. You know, what information are you seeking
from the f and sort of what answers are you
hoping to answer with it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, when this all started, I think it's hard to
ask exactly what are we looking for. I think we're
just looking for the truth. And when this all started
and it was saying that this was just the Richmond office,
at first, we wanted to know is that true? Is
it really just the Richmond office or is this a
larger operation which turned out to be the case, And
so now is this operation is continuing. We just want
(07:25):
to know how extensive is this and what exactly are
they doing when they're training their members to infiltrate the
Catholic Church. What does that look like and what exactly
are we up against? Because Catholics deserve to know how
they're being targeted by the FBI specifically.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, and then this original memo, which you know, of
course they said it was just the FBI Richmond Division
that we found out. It's actually bigger than that, you know,
they lied to us. But so in the memo, it
it says that the ideology can include adherence to anti Semitic,
anti immigrant, anti lgbt Q, white supremacist ideology. Pretty terrible
(08:03):
statements to be making about Catholics and in the Catholic
Church there right.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I mean talk about just like a sweeping generalization that's
just a straight up lie. It's really unfortunate as a
practicing Catholic and as someone who would consider herself a
traditional Catholic, I do go to Latin mass, I do veil.
Those apparently are two things. Those are two red flags
to look for, or they say trip wires in the
original memo. It is it's offensive and it's unfortunate to
(08:32):
see that you have Catholics who are just trying to
live out their faith, go to their place of worship
and pray, and now they're being told that they are
basically their terrorist for trying to follow what.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
They believe is right.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And the truth is, you know, this goes even farther.
And this it's so upsetting because in there have been
three hundred and sixty attacks against Catholic churches since twenty twenty.
Nearly two hundred of those have been since the Dabs leak,
and almost one hundred have been in this shar You're alone,
and there's no protection for the American people.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
There.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
There's no like, there's no movement from the FBI as
far as trying to prosecute on that level.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's fine. There's such a double standard here for what's
acceptable and what's not.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
And what kind of attacks are we talking about? Are
there any kind of specifics that you can give just
to sort of paint the picture for the folks at home.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, I mean we're talking massive vandalism. We're talking anywhere
from graffiti to rocks and bricks being thrown through windows,
to statues being destroyed most often to heads being cut
off of the statues, all the way to arson. We've
had Catholic churches and Catholic schools where people were trying
to burn them down. We've had people come into masses
(09:42):
and start to scream and chant in the middle of
our services and vandalize the church while there are people
inside the church. So I mean, this is it's really unfortunate,
and we've seen it across the United States and it
seems to only be growing.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It's terrible. And then not to mention the fact we've
seen people like Mark how the FBI is showing up
at his home. You know, fortunately he ended up being acquitted,
but you know, they're going after him, arrested him in
front of his children. He's a pro life Catholic who
dared to try to encourage women to not get abortions,
and they showed up at his house, gun blazing in
front of his family.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And then to do that with you know, for him
to come out of that on top, which is I mean,
that's a big win for the pro life movement, for
conservatives as a whole.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
But the truth is, the FBI feels like they can.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Get away with anything. The federal government feels like they
can get away with anything. And at the end of
the day, you know, people need to start reminding them
who they work for and what they're supposed to be
doing in their positions.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And there's three other people recently I'm not sure if
they're Catholics or what their their faith is but pro
life advocates seventy four year old woman, a seventy three
year old woman, seventy four year old woman's Joan Bell,
seventy year old Jean Marshall convicted by a federal jury,
potentially facing the rest of their lives in jail, and
the Face Act. So, I mean, it's just disgusting what
(11:03):
this administration has done to peaceful people who are just
trying to practice out their faith. You know what other
acts outside of kind of what we've talked about. Do
you think this administration is directed towards Catholics?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, I mean I think that as a whole.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Like we talked about the pro life movement, and we
touched briefly on parents at school board meetings, and I
think it goes deeper than just it's not just Catholics
that they're after. It's people who hold traditional values and
who uphold the idea that there is a moral right
and a moral wrong, and that moral relativism is the
downfall to a society.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And so I think it's just it's not just against Catholics.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I think Catholics are a great example, you know, as
the political director for Catholic though obviously that's very important
to me. But I think their issue with Catholics is
just what I've said, is that, you know, they hate
the fact that there's people out there, are people out
there who truly believe that there is a right and
there is a wrong, and what's right for me, there's
no what's right for me isn't necessarily what's right for you.
(12:03):
That's not how we should operate, That's not how the
world goes round. And so I would say that whether
it's through legislation that we're seeing pushed by fake Catholics
in Congress, or incentive that go against things that teach
the Catholic Church, all the way down to the attacks
on Catholic churches and refusing to even acknowledge the attacks
(12:26):
as being what they are. It's hard for people of
faith and people who stand for values to stand up
and feel like they have a voice, because no matter
how loud.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
They scream, it seems like nobody listens on the federal level.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
You know, I'm a Christian, I grew up in a
non denominational church. I mean, it seems like they're really
just targeting people for living out the Bible right and right.
I mean that really is that seems to be where
the attacks are stemming from. And then you know, even
beyond these that are specific to faith, it's just the
attacks on you know, children, you know, trying to encourage
(12:58):
little boys that they can be girls as girls, they
can boys, to mutilate their bodies in the process. I mean,
it's just there really is just this intentional confusion that
is being pushed in society right now.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
And also it's this idea that we're slowly and it's like,
I think parents are starting to notice it, but still
parents who are not necessarily plugged into what's happening in
the world, parents who don't want to turn on the
news because it's too negative, you know, the parental rights,
this movement to just remove parents voice in whether it's
school or healthcare or just decisions on what kids can
(13:33):
do or cannot do. It's like the government is slowly
trying to take over the role as the parent. And
that's terrifying because like you said, I mean, we're seeing that.
So I live in Ohio and we're seeing that in
Ohio right now with the abortion amendment that's coming on
the balant and you know, they want to say the
left ones to say this is about pro life versus
pro choice, and that's not what this is about.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
If you read the amendment, what it.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Actually says is that children can make their health care
decision between them and their provider and without informing the
parents or meeting their consent. So basically it can be
interpreted as my child can go get a sex change
surgery without even telling me, or my child can go
and get an abortion without even telling me. And it's
(14:16):
really unfortunate because we're seeing that across the nation and
that seems to be the movement that's being.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Pushed now quick commercial break more with Logan Church, with
Catholic vote. Well, it seems like there's you know, an
intentional knocking down of the things that give people anchors
in life and purpose in life, whether it's family, you know, faith,
these different things that make people able to stand on
(14:41):
their own. You know. They want people to be beholden
to the government. They want people to be seeking out,
you know, some sort of religion in their faith in
politics and government as opposed to things that actually bring
you value in life and bring you purpose in life.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Right, absolutely, I agree with one hundred percent. And it's
like they want to be able to to tell you
what you should believe, and they would prefer people just
to follow along.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
We talk about what Catholic Vote is doing. I mean,
are churches.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Doing enough in America?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Do you think to push back against a lot of
these nonsense?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I mean, every state is different, every diocese is different.
That's one of the things about the church is there's
a lot of you know, I guess you could say
local control when it comes to each individual diocese. The
Church could always be doing more, And that's just the
answer to everything is the Church could always be doing more.
But you know, with Catholic Vote, it's both encouraging and
(15:32):
disheartening working on the national level because you see so
many attacks like I don't know if you're familiar with,
like the Dodgers and how the Dodgers directly attacked the
Catholic Faith when they brought on a group of vile
transgender nuns who I mean, the whole point of that
organization was to attack and mock Christianity and to mock
(15:53):
the Catholic Faith. And the Dodgers decided they were the
right people to highlight for their award, their honor award
for LGBTQ night at the field, and I was really
pleased to see so many bishops and so many people
in the church stand up against that, because even though
it can be uncomfortable to feel like you're being placed
in a place of controversy in the limelight when you
(16:16):
just kind of want to be a lot of bishops
and priests just want to focus on doing their job
of like leading people to Heaven. There does come a
point where you have to stand up and you have
to say, hey, you're not gonna You're not gonna come
down on my faith. You're not going to come against
my people. And so I think people are starting to
wake up and be more involved and more vocal.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Me it does feel like we're facing sort of a
different level of evil in the country than you know,
I can. I'm thirty eight. It just feels like just
even that example of trying to invite these individuals in
front of children at a game, to trying to introduce
that normalize that type of thing in society is just
(16:56):
plain evil.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Right, or target deciding they're going to have talk friendly
swimwear for kids, It's like, why are we trying to
normalize something that should not be normal or even you know,
you have the American Medical Association trying to drop pedophilia
from a disorder.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
To a preference. At at what point? You know, I
think you're absolutely right. We are.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
We're living in this era of just evil where it
feels like they're trying to normalize things that should never
ever be normalized. And you know, I think the American
people are starting to realize that they have a voice
and they can vote not only on election day, but
they can vote with their pocketbooks, which we saw with
bud Light, and we saw with Target, We've seen with
the Dodgers, and I would like to see that continue.
(17:44):
I think people need to stay plugged in. They need
to wake up because if they don't, what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I do think that they're going to try to normalize pedophilia. Unfortunately,
I think with the drag Queen's stuff is sort of
an introduction to that. I mean, no grown man should be,
you know, t working in front of children for dollars,
and that's just I don't really see how that's not
that to be, you know, I mean, it's sexualizing children
(18:09):
in a way when we should be protecting children. It's
the fact that some of these things are being normalized
in society is incredibly disheartening.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Right and then even with you know, some of these
constitutional amendments that we're seeing come across a lot of
these states, like I said, in Ohio and twelve other
states next year, most of them have little hidden parts
to the amendment that's going to protect predators, where predators
like doctors aren't required to report predators anymore. And like
(18:40):
we're seeing that where it's almost like you're creating a
safe place for pedophiles in our society.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It's really really scary.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And I think it's so scary that they're using the
abortion movement because it's such an emotionally charged movement and
you have people who feel like it's black or white,
and it's not. There's a lot of gray area in there.
And I feel like the far left is using that
as a as a trojan horse to get a lot
of other evil stuff done.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
It's a scary time. What are you guys doing as
the national political director of Catholic Vote, So what do
your efforts look like right now as we head into
the twenty twenty four presidential race. You know, sort of
what are your objectives?
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Politically, yeah, absolutely, So being the largest Catholic advocacy group,
we have our hands on a lot of different initiatives
and so, which is great because we have a C three,
C four and a super PAC and so we get
to do a lot of fun things between the three
of those. From voter education on just generalizing, we have
to educate Catholics on what does it mean to be
(19:39):
a Catholic voter and what does it mean to take
the teachings to the church that we're hearing in Sunday
and making sure that we're taking it to the polls
on Tuesday. And so what that looks like is whether
it's candidate advocacy where we find candidates that uphold the
values of the church, and that's just basically faith, family freedom,
(20:00):
and traditional family values and making sure that they're getting
elected in office and making sure those who don't uphold
those values are getting out of office. So we get
involved on the campaign level with things like that, but
we're also involved with legislation and balid initiatives across the US,
whether that's pro life legislation or about school choice, the environment, immigration,
(20:23):
Catholic vote gets involved in pretty much any issue that
the Church has a stance on.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Catholic vote has a stance on.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
And so we're really excited going into twenty twenty four
and we're hopeful for the difference we're going to get
to make in a lot of different target states and
hoping that helping Catholics have a voice.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
On election day.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, and whether you're you're Catholic or not, you know,
I'm not, but the issues that you guys are are
working on impacts you know, anyone of faith and anyone
who wants to live in a sane society that has
moralities on you know.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
So, uh, A big idea behind Catholic vote is, you know,
the Church just for good values. And that's one of
the things that the Catholic Church has done for two
thousand years is it's upheld a lot of values in society.
And so you know, it's proven that Catholic voters have
been the winning and losing vote for fifty years in
(21:17):
presidential elections and in local elections. And if Catholic voters
were all voting according to the Church, we would never
lose an election. And so I think that's kind of
what birth the idea of Catholic vote. But yes, absolutely
We are a voice for all Christians, all believers who
just want to see people do the right thing in
positions of office, because the fastest way to change the
culture is through the political realm, and you kind of
(21:39):
have to play in the game if you want to
see a change.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I totally agree. Logan Church, thanks so much for taking
the time. We appreciate what you guys are doing over
at Catholic Vote, and we appreciate taking the time to
join the show.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
That was Logan Church, the National Political direct Sure of
Catholic Vote. Appreciate you her taking the time. Appreciate you
guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday, but
you can listen throughout the week. I want to think
John Cassio and my producer for putting the show together.
Feel free to leave us a review, give us a
rating on Apple Podcasts. Until next time.
We want to share a good friend's podcast with you
this week, Enjoy the Truth with Lisa Booth in the
Clay and Buck podcast Network. The FBI has come under
fire after a document leaked showing that the bureau was
warning that radical traditionalist Catholics pose an extremist threat. Now,
the FBI originally tried to downplay this, saying was specific
(00:20):
to the FBI's Richmond Division. Turns out that was a lie.
It's bigger than that the FBI was encouraging the spying
of Catholics in their own churches. So we'll talk to
the organization suing the FBI. That organization is Catholic Vote.
We'll talk to their national political director, Logan Church, about
that lawsuit. What you should know, what they're hoping to accomplish.
(00:43):
And also how did Joe Biden, who's supposed to be
the second Catholic president, why is his administration targeting Catholics
to the degree that they are. We're going to get
into all that with Logan Church. Stay with us. Logan,
(01:03):
thanks so much for coming on the show. I appreciate
you making the time.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, of course, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So it's kind of wild because Joe Biden is the
second Catholic to be President of the United States, yet
his administration has been targeting Catholics. Why do you think
that is?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
You know, at the end of the day, I think
that the Catholic Church has been one of the sole
proprietors of the traditionalist movement, and so the far left
has felt threatened by the Catholic Church for quite some time.
And whether that's we've seen attacks through the churches themselves
or through the school system.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And so attacks on the Catholic.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Church isn't a new thing, and it's especially not a
new thing to have politicians who claim to be Catholic
to gather votes but don't particularly vote or behave in
alignment with the Catholic Church. So it's unfortunate, but it's
also unfortunately not shocking to groups like Catholic vote.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
You know, I know you say it's not a new thing,
but have we seen it to this degree? I mean,
we all saw that FBI memo specifically targeting Catholics and
also introducing the idea of surveilling and spying on Catholics
in their own churches. I mean, have we seen that?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
No, I mean not that we know of of course,
this all started with the original leaked memo where Christopher
Ray said under oath that it was isolated to the
Richmond office and it wasn't a big deal and it
was all being shut down. And then we find out
as things start to come out, we find out that
it wasn't isolated to Richmond, and in fact, Richmond was
working with several other offices to coordinate efforts to infiltrate
(02:42):
the Catholic Church and to better understand as they called
radical traditionalist Catholics. And the truth is they're getting their
information from a biased and partisan group, the Southern Poverty
Law Center, which has Catholics traditional Catholics category as radical
traditionalist Catholics, and they have them on a list with
(03:03):
the KKK and neo Nazis. So with that being the
FBI's information, it's no wonder that they're coming after Catholics
so hard. But the truth is, throughout the entire Biden administration,
his DOJ, and his FBI have continued to just demonstrate
a disgusting pattern of contempt against you know, equal justice
under the law. And we saw that with pro life activists,
(03:26):
We've seen that with conservatives in general, with parents at
school board meetings. Now with Catholics trying to just attend mass.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You know, how have Catholics responded to this so far?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I mean there's an uproar amongst Catholics, even Catholics who
don't attend Latin Mass. Not a large percentage of Catholics
actually attend a Latin Mass, but that being said, everyone
likes the freedom to be able to do so. So
I even know Catholics who attend an English Mass or
a Novis Auto Mass who are showing just concern because
(03:56):
the truth is, if they're going after, as they say,
traditional radical Catholics, now you know who's next and what
are they going to do next? And what are they
doing that we don't even know about?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Well, I mean that's the question, right because they were
found out about you know that memo. I believe there's
a whistleblower that you know, brought that forward. So you know,
what else is going on behind the scenes that we
don't know about. You know, how has Congress responded so far?
Do you feel like Catholics are getting enough support from
from Congress?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Actually? I do.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I mean, I'm really grateful to see the politicians that
are standing up and holding this agency and its leaders
accountable for the decisions that they've been making, especially with
this new letter that's come out, and we had a
lot of support from members like Jim Jordan and then
now Senator Rubio and the other senators that wrote this
letter to the FBI director. It's important for politicians to
(04:47):
hold these groups accountable because if they don't, no one
else can.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know and talk about this letter. You had talked
about Marco Rubio and some of the other senators. You know,
what does it say? What's the intended purpose behind it?
To get a little bit that Yeah, So.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Ultimately, what they were trying to do is inquire. They
wrote the letter to the FBI Director, Christopher Ray, and
they were just inquiring about the underlying process behind this
whole controversial issue of targeting Catholics. And one of the
things that they highlighted is the mission of the FBI,
and they quoted it, it's to protect the American people
and to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And ultimately,
(05:25):
this memorandum and the process that's been going on against
Catholics does not protect the American people, nor is it
upholding the Constitution. And they were just pointing out the
fact that the FBI it's not it doesn't exist to
harass law abiding American citizens, and so they want to
know why are they doing what they're doing and what's
the purpose.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, and if these were eight members of the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, we've got Republicans Senator Mark or Rubio,
James Rish of Idaho, Susan Collins, Tom Cotton, John Corny,
and Jerry Moran, James Lankford and Mike Rounds All wrote
what you just pointed out in this letter. Do you
feel like we've gotten any answers from Christopher Ray or
(06:05):
from the FBI and or the Department of Justice on
you know, how that even happened from to begin with.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
No, I mean ultimately, you know, Catholic Vote's been in
a lawsuit with the FBI since this all started, since
the original leak, and the truth is even on our front.
It's like this run around game where they're just playing
the system that they wrote, and it's really difficult because
groups like Catholic Vote and just the American people, you know,
we just want transparency, we want the truth, and there's
(06:31):
obviously more to this story than than they're sharing, because
why else are they keeping the information so secretive, and
so I think they're hoping if it's a long drawn
out process and they're slowly releasing redactive files, that it'll
just taper off and you know it won't be one
big blow up.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And so Catholic vote. You guys had filed this lawsuit
in April, I believe, a FOIA request trying to get
some additional information. You know, what information are you seeking
from the f and sort of what answers are you
hoping to answer with it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Well, when this all started, I think it's hard to
ask exactly what are we looking for. I think we're
just looking for the truth. And when this all started
and it was saying that this was just the Richmond office,
at first, we wanted to know is that true? Is
it really just the Richmond office or is this a
larger operation which turned out to be the case, And
so now is this operation is continuing. We just want
(07:25):
to know how extensive is this and what exactly are
they doing when they're training their members to infiltrate the
Catholic Church. What does that look like and what exactly
are we up against? Because Catholics deserve to know how
they're being targeted by the FBI specifically.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, and then this original memo, which you know, of
course they said it was just the FBI Richmond Division
that we found out. It's actually bigger than that, you know,
they lied to us. But so in the memo, it
it says that the ideology can include adherence to anti Semitic,
anti immigrant, anti lgbt Q, white supremacist ideology. Pretty terrible
(08:03):
statements to be making about Catholics and in the Catholic
Church there right.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I mean talk about just like a sweeping generalization that's
just a straight up lie. It's really unfortunate as a
practicing Catholic and as someone who would consider herself a
traditional Catholic, I do go to Latin mass, I do veil.
Those apparently are two things. Those are two red flags
to look for, or they say trip wires in the
original memo. It is it's offensive and it's unfortunate to
(08:32):
see that you have Catholics who are just trying to
live out their faith, go to their place of worship
and pray, and now they're being told that they are
basically their terrorist for trying to follow what.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
They believe is right.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And the truth is, you know, this goes even farther.
And this it's so upsetting because in there have been
three hundred and sixty attacks against Catholic churches since twenty twenty.
Nearly two hundred of those have been since the Dabs leak,
and almost one hundred have been in this shar You're alone,
and there's no protection for the American people.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
There.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
There's no like, there's no movement from the FBI as
far as trying to prosecute on that level.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's fine. There's such a double standard here for what's
acceptable and what's not.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
And what kind of attacks are we talking about? Are
there any kind of specifics that you can give just
to sort of paint the picture for the folks at home.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, I mean we're talking massive vandalism. We're talking anywhere
from graffiti to rocks and bricks being thrown through windows,
to statues being destroyed most often to heads being cut
off of the statues, all the way to arson. We've
had Catholic churches and Catholic schools where people were trying
to burn them down. We've had people come into masses
(09:42):
and start to scream and chant in the middle of
our services and vandalize the church while there are people
inside the church. So I mean, this is it's really unfortunate,
and we've seen it across the United States and it
seems to only be growing.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
It's terrible. And then not to mention the fact we've
seen people like Mark how the FBI is showing up
at his home. You know, fortunately he ended up being acquitted,
but you know, they're going after him, arrested him in
front of his children. He's a pro life Catholic who
dared to try to encourage women to not get abortions,
and they showed up at his house, gun blazing in
front of his family.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And then to do that with you know, for him
to come out of that on top, which is I mean,
that's a big win for the pro life movement, for
conservatives as a whole.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
But the truth is, the FBI feels like they can.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Get away with anything. The federal government feels like they
can get away with anything. And at the end of
the day, you know, people need to start reminding them
who they work for and what they're supposed to be
doing in their positions.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
And there's three other people recently I'm not sure if
they're Catholics or what their their faith is but pro
life advocates seventy four year old woman, a seventy three
year old woman, seventy four year old woman's Joan Bell,
seventy year old Jean Marshall convicted by a federal jury,
potentially facing the rest of their lives in jail, and
the Face Act. So, I mean, it's just disgusting what
(11:03):
this administration has done to peaceful people who are just
trying to practice out their faith. You know what other
acts outside of kind of what we've talked about. Do
you think this administration is directed towards Catholics?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, I mean I think that as a whole.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Like we talked about the pro life movement, and we
touched briefly on parents at school board meetings, and I
think it goes deeper than just it's not just Catholics
that they're after. It's people who hold traditional values and
who uphold the idea that there is a moral right
and a moral wrong, and that moral relativism is the
downfall to a society.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And so I think it's just it's not just against Catholics.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
I think Catholics are a great example, you know, as
the political director for Catholic though obviously that's very important
to me. But I think their issue with Catholics is
just what I've said, is that, you know, they hate
the fact that there's people out there, are people out
there who truly believe that there is a right and
there is a wrong, and what's right for me, there's
no what's right for me isn't necessarily what's right for you.
(12:03):
That's not how we should operate, That's not how the
world goes round. And so I would say that whether
it's through legislation that we're seeing pushed by fake Catholics
in Congress, or incentive that go against things that teach
the Catholic Church, all the way down to the attacks
on Catholic churches and refusing to even acknowledge the attacks
(12:26):
as being what they are. It's hard for people of
faith and people who stand for values to stand up
and feel like they have a voice, because no matter
how loud.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
They scream, it seems like nobody listens on the federal level.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
You know, I'm a Christian, I grew up in a
non denominational church. I mean, it seems like they're really
just targeting people for living out the Bible right and right.
I mean that really is that seems to be where
the attacks are stemming from. And then you know, even
beyond these that are specific to faith, it's just the
attacks on you know, children, you know, trying to encourage
(12:58):
little boys that they can be girls as girls, they
can boys, to mutilate their bodies in the process. I mean,
it's just there really is just this intentional confusion that
is being pushed in society right now.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
And also it's this idea that we're slowly and it's like,
I think parents are starting to notice it, but still
parents who are not necessarily plugged into what's happening in
the world, parents who don't want to turn on the
news because it's too negative, you know, the parental rights,
this movement to just remove parents voice in whether it's
school or healthcare or just decisions on what kids can
(13:33):
do or cannot do. It's like the government is slowly
trying to take over the role as the parent. And
that's terrifying because like you said, I mean, we're seeing that.
So I live in Ohio and we're seeing that in
Ohio right now with the abortion amendment that's coming on
the balant and you know, they want to say the
left ones to say this is about pro life versus
pro choice, and that's not what this is about.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
If you read the amendment, what it.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Actually says is that children can make their health care
decision between them and their provider and without informing the
parents or meeting their consent. So basically it can be
interpreted as my child can go get a sex change
surgery without even telling me, or my child can go
and get an abortion without even telling me. And it's
(14:16):
really unfortunate because we're seeing that across the nation and
that seems to be the movement that's being.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Pushed now quick commercial break more with Logan Church, with
Catholic vote. Well, it seems like there's you know, an
intentional knocking down of the things that give people anchors
in life and purpose in life, whether it's family, you know, faith,
these different things that make people able to stand on
(14:41):
their own. You know. They want people to be beholden
to the government. They want people to be seeking out,
you know, some sort of religion in their faith in
politics and government as opposed to things that actually bring
you value in life and bring you purpose in life.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Right, absolutely, I agree with one hundred percent. And it's
like they want to be able to to tell you
what you should believe, and they would prefer people just
to follow along.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
We talk about what Catholic Vote is doing. I mean,
are churches.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Doing enough in America?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Do you think to push back against a lot of
these nonsense?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I mean, every state is different, every diocese is different.
That's one of the things about the church is there's
a lot of you know, I guess you could say
local control when it comes to each individual diocese. The
Church could always be doing more, And that's just the
answer to everything is the Church could always be doing more.
But you know, with Catholic Vote, it's both encouraging and
(15:32):
disheartening working on the national level because you see so
many attacks like I don't know if you're familiar with,
like the Dodgers and how the Dodgers directly attacked the
Catholic Faith when they brought on a group of vile
transgender nuns who I mean, the whole point of that
organization was to attack and mock Christianity and to mock
(15:53):
the Catholic Faith. And the Dodgers decided they were the
right people to highlight for their award, their honor award
for LGBTQ night at the field, and I was really
pleased to see so many bishops and so many people
in the church stand up against that, because even though
it can be uncomfortable to feel like you're being placed
in a place of controversy in the limelight when you
(16:16):
just kind of want to be a lot of bishops
and priests just want to focus on doing their job
of like leading people to Heaven. There does come a
point where you have to stand up and you have
to say, hey, you're not gonna You're not gonna come
down on my faith. You're not going to come against
my people. And so I think people are starting to
wake up and be more involved and more vocal.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Me it does feel like we're facing sort of a
different level of evil in the country than you know,
I can. I'm thirty eight. It just feels like just
even that example of trying to invite these individuals in
front of children at a game, to trying to introduce
that normalize that type of thing in society is just
(16:56):
plain evil.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Right, or target deciding they're going to have talk friendly
swimwear for kids, It's like, why are we trying to
normalize something that should not be normal or even you know,
you have the American Medical Association trying to drop pedophilia
from a disorder.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
To a preference. At at what point? You know, I
think you're absolutely right. We are.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
We're living in this era of just evil where it
feels like they're trying to normalize things that should never
ever be normalized. And you know, I think the American
people are starting to realize that they have a voice
and they can vote not only on election day, but
they can vote with their pocketbooks, which we saw with
bud Light, and we saw with Target, We've seen with
the Dodgers, and I would like to see that continue.
(17:44):
I think people need to stay plugged in. They need
to wake up because if they don't, what's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I do think that they're going to try to normalize pedophilia. Unfortunately,
I think with the drag Queen's stuff is sort of
an introduction to that. I mean, no grown man should be,
you know, t working in front of children for dollars,
and that's just I don't really see how that's not
that to be, you know, I mean, it's sexualizing children
(18:09):
in a way when we should be protecting children. It's
the fact that some of these things are being normalized
in society is incredibly disheartening.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Right and then even with you know, some of these
constitutional amendments that we're seeing come across a lot of
these states, like I said, in Ohio and twelve other
states next year, most of them have little hidden parts
to the amendment that's going to protect predators, where predators
like doctors aren't required to report predators anymore. And like
(18:40):
we're seeing that where it's almost like you're creating a
safe place for pedophiles in our society.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It's really really scary.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And I think it's so scary that they're using the
abortion movement because it's such an emotionally charged movement and
you have people who feel like it's black or white,
and it's not. There's a lot of gray area in there.
And I feel like the far left is using that
as a as a trojan horse to get a lot
of other evil stuff done.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
It's a scary time. What are you guys doing as
the national political director of Catholic Vote, So what do
your efforts look like right now as we head into
the twenty twenty four presidential race. You know, sort of
what are your objectives?
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Politically, yeah, absolutely, So being the largest Catholic advocacy group,
we have our hands on a lot of different initiatives
and so, which is great because we have a C three,
C four and a super PAC and so we get
to do a lot of fun things between the three
of those. From voter education on just generalizing, we have
to educate Catholics on what does it mean to be
(19:39):
a Catholic voter and what does it mean to take
the teachings to the church that we're hearing in Sunday
and making sure that we're taking it to the polls
on Tuesday. And so what that looks like is whether
it's candidate advocacy where we find candidates that uphold the
values of the church, and that's just basically faith, family freedom,
(20:00):
and traditional family values and making sure that they're getting
elected in office and making sure those who don't uphold
those values are getting out of office. So we get
involved on the campaign level with things like that, but
we're also involved with legislation and balid initiatives across the US,
whether that's pro life legislation or about school choice, the environment, immigration,
(20:23):
Catholic vote gets involved in pretty much any issue that
the Church has a stance on.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Catholic vote has a stance on.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
And so we're really excited going into twenty twenty four
and we're hopeful for the difference we're going to get
to make in a lot of different target states and
hoping that helping Catholics have a voice.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
On election day.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, and whether you're you're Catholic or not, you know,
I'm not, but the issues that you guys are are
working on impacts you know, anyone of faith and anyone
who wants to live in a sane society that has
moralities on you know.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
So, uh, A big idea behind Catholic vote is, you know,
the Church just for good values. And that's one of
the things that the Catholic Church has done for two
thousand years is it's upheld a lot of values in society.
And so you know, it's proven that Catholic voters have
been the winning and losing vote for fifty years in
(21:17):
presidential elections and in local elections. And if Catholic voters
were all voting according to the Church, we would never
lose an election. And so I think that's kind of
what birth the idea of Catholic vote. But yes, absolutely
We are a voice for all Christians, all believers who
just want to see people do the right thing in
positions of office, because the fastest way to change the
culture is through the political realm, and you kind of
(21:39):
have to play in the game if you want to
see a change.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I totally agree. Logan Church, thanks so much for taking
the time. We appreciate what you guys are doing over
at Catholic Vote, and we appreciate taking the time to
join the show.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
That was Logan Church, the National Political direct Sure of
Catholic Vote. Appreciate you her taking the time. Appreciate you
guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday, but
you can listen throughout the week. I want to think
John Cassio and my producer for putting the show together.
Feel free to leave us a review, give us a
rating on Apple Podcasts. Until next time.
Host
Lisa Boothe
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