The FBI is not the only one compiling dossiers on priests

News30 August 2026 In the United States, two priests came under investigation over their travel, phones, sermons and ecclesiastical relationships. The case shows how easily an investigative agency can turn religious life into material for an intelligence file. Washington - Few would dispute that the Federal Bureau of Investigation should investigate someone who builds Molotov cocktails, tries to obtain weapons, calls for the killing of minorities and police officers and advocates a shooting at a school. That is exactly the kind of individual at the centre of the case reconstructed in a report published by the US Department of Justice on 28 August 2026 into the so-called Richmond Catholic Memo. What followed is where the problem lies. The FBI’s Richmond Field Office began with an investigation into that man, then moved on to the Catholic chapel he attended, from there to the priest serving the chapel, and eventually to the priest’s uncle, who was also a priest. Agents gathered information …