(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The man who inspired the FBI’s controversial report on “radical-traditionalist Catholics” was sentenced to 97 months imprisonment on Thursday after pleading guilty to terrorism-related offenses, which stem from agents finding Molotov cocktail-type devices in his home in 2022.
The defendant, Xavier Lopez, had asked a judge for a lighter 57-month sentence due to his mental health issues. He also sought a downward variance due to the Justice Department incorrectly labelling him as a gang member—white supremacy isn’t a gang, he noted—but that was unsuccessful for reasons that are unclear. The Justice Department also motioned for an upward variance to 120 months in prison, but that was unsuccessful, too.
Lopez has already filed an appeal.
UPDATE: Xavier Lopez, who inspired the FBI's controversial anti-Catholic memo, was sentenced yesterday to 97 months in prison.
Lopez unsuccessfully motioned for a downward variance because the DOJ incorrectly labelled him as being in a gang (white supremacism isn't a gang). It's… https://t.co/eF19a4OT0B pic.twitter.com/QFJFAmRX6A— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) February 28, 2025
As Headline USA has detailed, Lopez was on law enforcement’s radar since September 2018, when he attempted suicide. Lopez was 18 years old at the time. The FBI opened an assessment into Lopez about a year later after he allegedly made online statements advocating civil war and the murder of politicians.
Law enforcement continued to monitor Lopez—including while he served a stint in jail for felony vandalism—into early 2022, when he began attending Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Chapel in Richmond, Virginia.
Shortly after Lopez started attending Our Lady of Fatima, the FBI decided to run an informant at him inside the church.
The FBI later expressed concerns to the DOJ Inspector General that Lopez may have been recruiting other Lady of Fatima members to carry out an attack—though that turned out not to be the case. There is nothing in the charging documents against Lopez to suggest that he was recruiting other Catholics for an attack. Rather, the available evidence suggests that Lopez was interested in Catholic church to find a girlfriend.
Lopez was arrested in November 2022 on a slew of state charges, including prohibited paramilitary activity, soliciting someone for a terrorist act and possessing firearms as a felon.
After his arrest, an FBI analyst with knowledge of the investigation worked with another analyst to craft the FBI’s memo about Catholics. That memo would be leaked in early 2023, and would dominate the conservative news cycle for much of the year.
FBI Director Chris Wray has since apologized for the report, which received heavy criticism from GOP lawmakers for—among numerous other reasons—underpinning its findings with information from the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center.
Meanwhile, the man who inspired the entire fiasco, Lopez, is no longer Catholic, he said last September.
🚨NEW🚨The man who inspired the FBI’s controversial report on “radical-traditionalist Catholics” told a judge earlier this month that he’s renounced his Christianity.
Story below pic.twitter.com/u6Jxcg4B8P— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) September 18, 2024
“I’m no longer a Christian of any kind, and will never be again for the rest of the days I shall live,” former trad Cath Xavier Lopez told a federal judge in a Sept. 6 motion to remove his attorney.
In that motion, Lopez also expressed a willingness to renounce his American citizenship and leave the country altogether.
Lopez’s current attorney replaced his federal public defender, who said in a memo in 2023 that his client may suffer from schizophrenia.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
