The FBI has recently come out and stated that interviews of a priest and a choir director, which were conducted as part of a criminal investigation, were solely related to the individual of interest and not the Catholic Church.
This all started when, during the course of an ongoing investigation, agents of the FBI went to a Catholic church in their jurisdiction to conduct interviews of a priest and a choir director. This naturally caused a certain amount of outrage and alarm in the Catholic Church and the general public, as some people thought that the FBI was taking aim at the Church as a whole, not just at an individual.
However, the FBI has been quick to quell this fear. In a statement, the agency went on record to say that their purpose in questioning the priest and choir director was to obtain information about a specific individual, and had nothing whatsoever to do with the Catholic Church as an organization.
The FBI assured everyone that they respect all religions and do not target individuals or groups based on their faith; their purpose in this investigation was strictly to obtain information that might aid in their case. The agency also noted that they take great care to ensure that religious buildings and places of worship are not mistreated or abused during their investigations.
While it is understandable that the general public should be concerned for the Church, with the FBI involved in what could be seen as a possible targeting of the Catholic Church, the American people can take comfort in the fact that the Bureau is upstanding in its duty to pursue criminal cases without regard to race, religion, color, or creed. The FBI’s assurances that their questioning of the church personnel was solely in aid of the investigation into an individual should allay any fears that the Catholic Church, as an institution, is being targeted.