FBI reportedly fires agents in connection with memo on ‘radical-traditionalist’ Catholics

A field office of the federal bureau had issued a memo on investigating Catholic communities in Virginia over alleged extremism.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly fired several agents in connection with a controversial 2023 memo that detailed the bureauʼs plans to investigate “radical-traditionalist” Catholics in Virginia.

Multiple media outlets reported on the firings on June 5, citing sources within the federal agency. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from EWTN News on the reports.

The memo, which leaked in February 2023, detailed the FBIʼs Virginia-based investigations into alleged extremists among the faithful at “traditional Catholic houses of worship.” The bureau indicated that it had planned “trip wire or source development” among Catholic communities as part of its investigation.

The policy, which was withdrawn after it was leaked to the press, drew rebuke from local Catholic leaders and members of Congress. Lawmakers have repeatedly grilled FBI leadership over the memo and the FBIʼs handling of it both before and after it leaked.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in September 2025 that there had been “terminations” and “resignations” related to the memo. Patel said at the time that the FBI was conducting an investigation into the memo itself.

In February 2024 multiple U.S. senators grilled then-FBI Director Christopher Wray over the alleged deletion of files related to the memo. The lawmakers claimed that the bureau allegedly “deleted the records as soon as the incident became public.”

Although the FBI removed the document from its systems and asserted the issue was isolated to one product from one field office, a 2025 report found that multiple field offices were involved in producing the memo and that it was distributed to more than 1,000 FBI employees throughout the country.

In December 2025 Virginiaʼs then Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger tapped Stanley Meador — the special agent who oversaw the Richmond FBI office that drafted the memo — to lead the stateʼs public safety and homeland security department.

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