Latin Mass Held In Capitol On Anniversary Of FBI Memo Targeting Traditional Catholics 

By Joe Bukuras and Tyler Arnold

One year after the FBI’s Richmond office sent out a memorandum outlining an investigation into traditionalist Catholics, a Latin Mass was held in the U.S. Capitol with the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson and two other Republican members of the House.

“On Jan. 23, 2023, the FBI circulated an internal memo in which traditional Catholics were called ‘violent extremists’ and compared to ‘domestic terrorists,’” a note about the Mass said.

“Today, on the one-year anniversary of that memo, we celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass in the United States Capitol, as fully American as anyone else,” it said. 

Ryan Ellis, treasurer of the Arlington Latin Mass Society, which coordinated the event, told CNA Tuesday that there were about 60 to 70 attendees at the Mass. 

Ellis said that no members of Congress were in attendance as they were out of town for recess but that they helped coordinate the Mass. Rep. Dan Meuser, who Ellis said helped make the event possible, is Catholic, while Speaker Johnson is Baptist, and the other congressman who was involved, Rep. Jim Jordan, is Protestant.

He said that some staffers were there but did not specify from which office. He added that the organization was very intentional about who was invited so that word would not spread too widely.

“We intentionally sacrificed some of the knowledge of the Mass because we wanted to be discreet about it,” he said. “This was something that, given the Traditionis Custodes atmosphere around here, could have easily had the kibosh put on it by the Archdiocese of Washington.”

In July 2021, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Traditionis Custodes, which established new guidelines for how the older form of the Mass could be celebrated. The Holy See then published additional guidelines in February 2023 that clarified that any dioceses wanting to grant parishes special dispensations to celebrate the old Mass needed the express approval of the Vatican to do so. The result of these instructions was a restriction on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass throughout the world.

In line with Traditionis Custodes, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, published his own liturgical guidelines in July 2022 in which he reduced the number of parishes that could celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass to three. 

CNA reached out to the archdiocese for comment Tuesday night but did not immediately receive a response.

Ellis told CNA that with the first anniversary of the memo approaching, he thought, “We ought to see if we can do something that shows that the House majority stands four square with traditional Catholics against this persecution from the FBI.” 

“They’ve already done great oversight on this, but this would be a symbolic, sort of incarnated way of showing that support,” he said.

The Mass was originally planned to take place in a small room in the Capitol, but the organizers had to relocate it to a room, “probably three times the size,” Ellis said, citing the large number of RSVPs from people wanting to attend.

He said that his organization was working with the Catholic advocacy group CatholicVote to publicize the event.

Ellis added that the Mass was “great” and that he received a lot of positive feedback from those who attended. 

“So it was very nice. And certainly nothing that the Capitol has seen, I think, in a long time, if ever,” he said.

He said that the priest who celebrated the Mass asked to remain anonymous.