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Washington D.C., Feb 7, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday evening to create a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias within the federal government.
The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias will review policies in federal departments and agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It will be led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday. The heads of other departments will also serve on the task force.
According to the order, the task force will review policies in every department to “identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices, or conduct” and recommend agency heads to end them. The task force, which will conclude in two years, will also submit reports to the president 120 days from its creation, one year after its creation, and a final report when it finishes its work.
The executive order directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide the task force with funding and administrative and technical support.
Trump announced his intention to create the task force Feb. 6 at the National Prayer Breakfast.
Combat targeting of Catholics, Christians, pro-life Americans
Trump’s executive order laid out numerous examples of anti-Christian bias as a reference point for the types of policies the task force was created to root out, including a 2023 Richmond FBI memo that established a plan to investigate traditionalist Catholics.
“[The memo] asserted that ‘radical-traditionalist’ Catholics were domestic-terrorism threats and suggested infiltrating Catholic churches as ‘threat mitigation,’” the executive order states. “This later-retracted FBI memorandum cited as support evidence propaganda from highly partisan sources.”
In the memo, FBI officials detailed an investigation into supposed ties between what it called “radical-traditionalist” Catholics and “the far-right white nationalist movement.” It recommended “trip wire or source development” within parishes that offer the Latin Mass and within online communities it deemed “radical-traditionalist.”
The FBI relied on the Southern Poverty Law Center to designate “radical-traditionalist” Catholics in the memo. The FBI rescinded the memo after it was leaked to the public.
Certain regulatory actions were also listed as examples of anti-Christian bias, including rules to prohibit “discrimination” based on a person’s self-asserted “gender identity.”
This includes a rule issued by President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services that could have forced Catholic hospitals to perform transgender surgeries on patients, including minors. The regulation would have required religious organizations to cover such surgeries in their insurance plans.
Trump’s executive order also listed the DOJ’s prosecution of pro-life activists under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the comparative lack of prosecutions for attacks on Catholic churches, charities, and pro-life pregnancy resource centers as another example of bias. Trump pardoned the pro-life activists prosecuted under Biden’s DOJ.
“My administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians,” the executive order states.
“The law protects the freedom of Americans and groups of Americans to practice their faith in peace, and my administration will enforce the law and protect these freedoms,” it adds. “My administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified.”
Tommy Valentine, the Catholic accountability project director for CatholicVote, said the executive order is “truly welcome news for Catholics, who have seen our churches attacked to the tune of nearly 500 acts of violence and vandalism in the last five years.”
“Let nobody be confused as to whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump was a greater friend to Christians while in the White House,” Valentine said in a statement.
“Our second Catholic president facilitated the persecution and prosecution of Christians who disagreed with his anti-Christian agenda, while the current president stands strong for the safety and religious freedom of Christians everywhere,” he added. “We thank the Trump administration for this order and look forward to the fruit it will bear.”
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