A Counterintelligence Strategy for the Church

Another look at the FBI memo depicting Traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists, about which the FBI Director perjured himself.

From Roma Locuta Est

By Edward J. Barr, JD

On August 9, 2023, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent an official letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. The letter provides clear evidence that the FBI Richmond Field Office coordinated with other field offices to craft the document that identified traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists. Components of the federal government see the Church as the enemy. This makes sense, given the predominate views of many in the ruling class, but it is just one of many reasons why the Catholic Church needs a counterintelligence (CI) capability.

In our series on the demonic recruitments (see Spiritual Spying, How Demons Recruit, Part I, II, III, IV, and V), we discussed the offensive capabilities that the demons were employing. These were human intelligence (HUMINT) strategies designed to spot, assess, develop, recruit, and manage new soldiers of the demonic army. Just as all intelligence entities have an offensive capability – whether we are talking about the demonic or traditional worldly intelligence organizations such as the CIA – all organizations have a defensive capability. The defensive capability is called counterintelligence (CI). The Church has no formal counterintelligence capability to combat worldly threats, and no formal program to combat spiritual threats on an organizational level. In spiritual warfare, the Church provides guidance and tools that individuals can use to combat the demons, but there is no formal program to assist the institutional church.

When conducting HUMINT operations an officer must consider what steps the enemy will take to prevent you from accomplishing your mission. All governments possess some type of formal counterintelligence capability to identify, assess, counter, exploit and/or neutralize adversaries trying to do harm to their nation. HUMINT officers are aware of that fact and consider their opponent’s counterintelligence capabilities when planning operations. If you are trying to recruit a military official from a foreign country, you must be aware of what that country’s counterintelligence service can do to stop you. A counterintelligence service does whatever they can to detect, deter, deny, and defend against people trying to steal classified information or cause damage to their nation. They also educate, train, and monitor certain of their countrymen to ensure they aren’t susceptible to recruitment by the enemy. For the material world case officer, counterintelligence services present a challenge. For the demonic case officer, they have no such worry.

The demons that try to compromise God’s children have a significant advantage. There is no counterintelligence capability within the Catholic Church. Once it has been determined that the demons have been successful, an exorcist may be brought in to assist in delivering the soul, but damage has already been done. There are many methods to protect souls from being compromised by the demonic, but there is no formal capability to assist either the clergy or the laity. In addition, the church is under attack not only by the spiritual demonic forces but by allies in the material world who do the demons’ bidding. This can be as simple as legislatures devising programs that specifically target the Catholic Church. For example, several states allow legal causes of action to be taken against the Catholic Church far beyond the normal statute of limitations. Therefore, someone can bring a charge against a Catholic priest who has been long since retired or even be dead, whereas they would be unable to bring a similar charge against a member of the medical profession, counselors, school teachers or any other category of professional, despite all these groups having a higher incidence of sexual abuse than priests (source: The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse by Bill Donohue).

Laws targeting the Church often are enacted in conjunction with successful HUMINT operations. Prosecutors and lawyers may recruit people who are hostile to the church. They may be encouraged to re-remember something in the past, or at least bring a decades old charge that would be quite impossible for the church to defend (the very reason for statutes of limitation). The church has done an excellent job over the past couple of decades at dramatically reducing actual sexual abuse by priests. Bishops in the US should be commended for instituting procedures and policies that have all but eliminated the type of problems that the church experienced in the last century and exploded after Vatican II.

This success of lessening sexual abuse will lead groups hostile to the Church to develop alternative methods of attack. The previously mentioned special legislation and rules and regulations designed to target only abuses in the Catholic church will continue to proliferate. New efforts may include purposely sending individuals into the seminary, like what the communists did last century, as reported by Bella Dodd. The above referenced recent actions by the FBI against Catholic groups are extremely concerning and foreshadow greater hostility by government organizations. The Church has had to defend itself against aggressive anti-Catholic prosecutors at the state level, but never in recent history has the federal law enforcement apparatus been directed against the Church. The goal is to use political and financial means to silent dissent by the Church against the Culture of Death policies of the political class.

Now that the federal government has demonstrated hostility to the institutional Church, other anti-Catholic forces can turn their attention to private Catholic organizations. This is a rationale strategy for the demons to encourage in their efforts to permanently cripple the Church. If the government is now focusing on Church institutions, anti-Catholic interest groups can direct their attention to organizations that uphold traditional values. This means any entity that continues to uphold the teachings of the Church. Institutions such as the Knights of Columbus, faithful Catholic colleges (albeit there are only a few left), and faithful Catholic hospitals will be targeted. Regarding academia, it will be easy to determine which colleges and universities will be attacked. There are so few that are faithful to the teachings of the church that it will be easy to identify them as the secularists’ main targets. The same is somewhat true in the medical community.

Instituting a counterintelligence capability will not be easy. Since counterintelligence entities operate in secret, many will be uncomfortable to even consider establishing such a group. Counterintelligence professionals have often been accused of trying to undermine individuals and groups based on their own purposes rather than those of the organization. In short, law enforcement and intelligence authorities can be abused, as we see in our country today. Even within the intelligence community, many look askance at their CI colleagues. It is like how internal affairs offices are viewed within police departments. But, like internal affairs, it’s something that must be done to maintain the integrity of the institution.

It would be prudent to come up with a different term rather than counterintelligence to assuage the concerns and lessen the knee-jerk reaction many would have if the church said it was creating any type of intelligence capability. Of course, the church has an inherent offensive human intelligence capability through its worldwide network. It is also true that ad-hoc counterintelligence activities are accomplished by the church. The problem is there is no coordination, and dioceses and parishes are uniquely unprepared.

The main challenge would be developing a capability that supports both material and spiritual counterintelligence goals. The Church must detect, identify, assess, counter, exploit and/or neutralize adversaries in both the material and spiritual worlds. That would mean the creation of a unique counterintelligence capability, one that has never been developed before. Input must include professionals and clerics who understand either CI, HUMINT, spiritual warfare, or (preferably) all the above. It would be a hybrid capability.

One of the key activities would be to assist in the vetting of prospective priestly candidates and protection of them after they enter formation. Anyone considering or entering priestly formation will be attacked by the demons. The demons will use all the tools at their disposal to undermine those pursuing holy orders. They will use direct and indirect attacks. The indirect attacks are often the most difficult to detect. Even seemingly holy people can be used to attack seminarians and priests. Currently those men are on their own. There is no support system to provide basic analysis (which may include traditional background checks and/or behavioral profiling of close contacts). This may seem over the top to some, but there is a reason many theologians and saints believe priests receive a second guardian angel upon ordination. They are valued prizes. The same goes for seminarians. It is much better to attack them at that stage, rather than later when they will have more spiritual authority as a priest.

To explore options, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (and statewide conferences) should appoint a small group of qualified counterintelligence experts and priests with expertise in spiritual warfare (exorcists if possible) to develop a model plan for each diocese or groups of dioceses. Ironically, this can be crafted along the lines of the FBI’s Strategic Partnership Program. This program aids private sector businesses in protecting their intellectual property. Principles and techniques can be modified to assist the church in defending itself from both demonic and worldly forces. Without establishing a counterintelligence capability, the church will remain unprepared to take defensive action against the growing number of enemies that are hostile to Christianity as a whole and the Catholic Church in particular.

Edward J Barr is a career intelligence officer and commercial counterintelligence consultant. He teaches in a master’s level intelligence studies program at a major US university. Ed earned a Master of Theology degree from the Augustine Institute and offers talks through The Gray Apostlewebsite. His novel, The Gray Apostle: Mission of the Messiah,”is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers.