Church Militant to Close in April 2024
Church Militant, the controversial Catholic media outlet that
has for years maintained a reputation for combative and antagonistic coverage
of Catholic figures and issues, will cease operations next month following a
$500,000 defamation judgment against it.
Boston-based law firm Todd &
Weld said in a press release this week that Church Militant had “agreed to the
entry of a judgment against it in the amount of $500,000” in a defamation
lawsuit brought by Father Georges de Laire, the judicial vicar of the Diocese
of Manchester, New Hampshire.
The media outlet had run an
article in 2019 titled “NH Vicar Changes Dogma Into Heresy,” one in which the
author, canonist Marc Balestrieri, claimed to “have talked to a number of
anonymous sources who allegedly made negative comments about Father de Laire
both personally and professionally,” the law firm said.
De Laire brought suit against
both Balestriei and Church Militant over the article. In the course of the
lawsuit, both the writer and the outlet were “unable to identify a single
source who said anything negative about Father de Laire,” Todd & Weld said.
The law firm said the article had
been written in “an attempt to discredit Father de Laire” and the Diocese of
Manchester.
Todd & Weld said in the press
release that St. Michael’s Media, the parent company of Church Militant, “will
cease all operations of Church Militant by the end of April 2024.”
Church Militant did not
immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday regarding its reasons
for shutting down. Asked for insight into the company’s decision, Howard Cooper
— a founding partner of Todd & Weld — declined to speculate.
“Questions about Church
Militant’s thinking will need to be answered by them,” he told CNA.
Late last year, Church Militant
founder Michael Voris resigned over a
“morality” violation, with Voris at the time alluding to
“horrible ugly things” he had done, though he did not go into specifics at the
time.
“I need to conquer these demons,”
he said of his decision to resign. “The underlying cause of it has been too
ugly for me to look at.”
The Washington Post reported last
week that staffers had “complained that Voris had sent
shirtless photos of himself to Church Militant staff and associates” prior to
his resignation.
Voris founded St. Michael’s Media
in 2006. The company launched Church Militant — originally titled Real Catholic
TV — in 2008.
Simcha Fisher provides all the ins and outs of this sorry saga of dishonesty here.
CM provided a great deal of accessible programming along the lines of "how to defend the faith" and "what the doctrines of the Church mean" at its inception, and for a number of years after. This was all good, red meat of Catholicism. Its demise is worth studying because, in a weird way, it's vindication of the Church's position on homosexuality. Ultimately, it was homosexuality that destroyed it. There's a reason why the catechism says that homosexual men should not be accepted for the priesthood. Like almost everyone of my generation (I'm about to turn 60) I grew up absorbing the culture's sermons -- in movies, TV, novels, etc; -- that homosexuality and heterosexuality were comparable and equal sexualities. They're not, and Michael Voris said it himself (if only he'd listened to his own statement): there are not two sexualities, there is only one, and in some people, it's broken. I don't think any man ever said a truer word. Voris destroyed what could have been a great asset to the Church, but the lesson we should take is that that's what homosexuality always ends up doing. There's no cure, and the only treatment is celibacy. My respect and admiration to those men with this orientation who take up their cross and carry it.
ReplyDeleteIts demise is worth studying because, in a weird way, it's vindication of the Church's position on homosexuality.
DeletePerhaps tangentially. The only treatment for any sin is humility and penance. On the face of it, Voris put himself in a position where power and notoriety went to his head - he effectively set himself up as a standard bearer for the truth in opposition to the Church hierarchy - and this allowed his particular sin to best him. Plenty of heterosexual men have fallen the same way.
I have always enjoyed reading Jules Gomes’ news stories from Rome. I have no doubt he’ll find it easy enough to find an alternative outlet for his work, but losing a job, for whatever reason, is never a pleasant experience.
ReplyDeleteLet's remember that CM's demise was directly caused by waging a vendetta against a particular priest by dishonest reporting and seeking nefarious ways of covering this up - not by Voris' homosexuality. This priest happened to have an independent source of family wealth and was able to sue in the civil courts. Others haven't been able to do so.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, Jack. What Voris did with regard to the priest you mention is, I think, traceable to his homosexuality. Let's not forget, there is no gay gene. Nobody is "born that way." It's a pathology of mind, not body, which creates a same-sex attraction. It's the ultimate narcissism, only one of whose manifestations is in sodomy, probably because it's about as 180 degrees in opposition to the natural law as it's possible to get. It's classic "ordinary rules don't apply to me" syndrome. It's why "gay pride" needs a month to celebrate, and it's why Voris refused to step back and go behind the camera several years ago when his proclivities were exposed. Had he done so, CM would probably have got stronger and bigger. After all, nobody said he didn't know how to make a TV programme. But he wouldn't give up the spotlight because...you know..."it's me, and I'm special." And he wouldn't have done what he did had he NOT been "special."
DeleteOh, and not forgetting the article in question and the follow-ups were actually teaching heresy!
Delete@ Bell, I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment of Voris. This particular case may have been driven by ego. However, the whole editorial brief of CM was one of scandal and muck raking and and a presentation of Catholicism that bordered, and crossed, into heresy. One reads St Michael's media is now contemplating suing Voris.
DeleteI agree, the CM brief was indeed scandal driven. He got away with it so long because there were plenty of scandals to drive him. I actually said once in one of their forums that once Voris went, the whole thing would collapse, and I was right about that. I suspect a lot of the staff agreed because before the final fall there was a desperate move to put other faces in front of the cameras. Too little, too late. What I will say is that the earlier incarnation of CM, when it was putting out programming aimed at filling the gap of Catholic apologetics that my generation of Catholics and later suffered from was excellent work. Probably too successful. I imagine that when he started the outfit, Voris actually WAS trying to straighten himself out, if you'll forgive the pun. But the success of his mission just went to his head. He couldn't handle it and the rest, as they say, is history.
DeleteWell, Satan is ever ready to take advantage of our human weaknesses. Like all sinners, Michael Voris needs our prayers - as do all those harmed by him down the years. Catholic Answers was always my 'go to' site for solid apologetics. I fell under the influence of CM briefly when I first started using the internet back in 2010. Until then, it was always the CCC and Scripture. Sometimes I seriously wonder if there's just too much controversial traffic around these days.
DeleteWhen I first started using the internet back in 2010...
DeleteThat's about the time I was first allowed unsupervised access to the internet, too.
Sometimes I seriously wonder if there's just too much controversial traffic around these days.
There's nothing new under the sun. Controversy drives clicks, clicks make money. It's what the Americans called 'yellow journalism' back in the days of printed newspapers, except the internet amplifies it and gives a voice to anyone who can set up a website or social media account. I imagine that when Jack was young, news of controversies in the Vatican would rarely have made it outside its walls, for good or for ill. Unplugging should be something that the churches advocate for more seriously.
You're allowed unsupervised access to the internet!!!
DeleteYes, 2010. don't quite remember how it happened but I stumbled across Archbishop Cranmer when off work for a few months and had no idea of the depth of controversies between Christians. This got me Googling around other sites .... and so it went. These days, it's one or two Catholic news sites and I tend to avoid commenting too much.
Only once I've finished my greens, of course. When I first started having my 'own' access to the internet, my parents installed parental controls on the computer but, as my dad got me to set them up for him, they didn't do much.
DeleteReligious news sites, at least in the English speaking world, seem to be suffering from the same polarised extremes as everything else (following the lead of American politics, unfortunately). Most Catholic sites are either fully with or fully against Pope Francis, and most Anglophone Orthodox ones are just as bitterly split over Ukraine and Russia. I think the loss of nuance and the rise of blind tribalism are two of the greatest problems of our time.
Latest fro CMworld
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/zeKjQ2yMJRE?si=h8_oBq1YOCy-UQWt
Is this the same thing that @Bell just posted? CM seems to be rebranding as "Truth Army"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/search?q=truth+army+youtube&rlz=1C1GCEA_enBR824BR824&oq=truth+army+youtube&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l2.11117j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7b9f471f,vid:zeKjQ2yMJRE,st:0
It is. From what I can gather 'Truth Army' are going to manage St Michael Media.
DeleteAs far as I can see, the churchmilitant.com website has been killed off but its replacement, presumably to be called trutharmy.com, is not yet in existence; Or am I doing something wrong?
DeleteNo, I think you're right. I hope Truth Army can salvage something out of this, if only to put the apologetics library back in circulation. I'll give Voris his credit for that. It was a terrific resource.
DeleteInferior to Catholic Culture's library: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/
DeleteAnd also to Catholic Answers resources: https://www.catholic.com/
For those interested, the link below is to a blog which gives the story behind the suit that brought CM down. It's long-winded (about an hour) and much of it is reading of legal documents. However, it does make clear exactly what happened, particularly the initial letter from the priest's lawyers.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/zneG9ilEzdo?si=u1lLZ6GTMqmjGjhg
Just in from Crux.—The Coptic Orthodox Church has suspended theological dialogue with the Catholic Church and reaffirmed its opposition to “all forms of homosexual relationships,” in yet another repercussion arising from Fiducia Supplicans, a declaration issued three months ago, which with everv passing day looks more and more like a foolish mistake committed by Cardinal “Tucho” Fernández with the full approval of Pope Francis.
ReplyDeletehttps://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-middle-east/2024/03/coptic-church-cuts-theological-dialogue-with-catholics-says-blessing-gays-unacceptable
It's all well and good to point out that FS doesn't actually change Catholic doctrine on sodomy, but the Jesuits -- and this is where it's coming from; I'm coming round to the idea that Francis himself is just a fellow traveller, he's not driving it -- know perfectly well that the practice is the doctrine. The Copts know it too, and so do the Eastern Orthodox. Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church has stated publicly that there is no possibility of reunification with the West while that document stands, which is the ironic fallout from a pope who has made of virtue of suppressing the Extraordinary Form of the mass in the name of unity. The Catholic Church needs to reaffirm in categorical terms what its doctrine actually holds, with no obfuscation and no qualification. Blessing the couple IS blessing the union because there IS no couple without a union, there are only two people, and the rest of us can recognise a Jesuit trick when we see it.
DeleteYes, the latest claim is that it is the individuals who are blessed - not the couple or the union. This one gets worse by the day.
DeleteAnd churches such as this one are now openly offering blessings to couples:
Deletehttps://saintpaul.cdlex.org/lgbtq-ministry
Their image of the Mother of God wrapped in the Pride flag is particularly offensive. How are these things allowed without sanction?
God knows!
DeleteAnd this is in breach of FS as these pastoral, non-liturgical blessings are supposed to be spontaneous, not prearranged: Same-sex couples who would like a blessing, please contact Father Richard at 859.420.4182 or rwatson@cdlex.org
Yes, FS seems to skate so close to being deliberately open to 'misinterpretation' as to make one think that it's all intentional. What is going on at the Vatican?
DeleteWhat is going on at the Vatican? Now there's a question!
DeleteHere's a worrying update on CM and its possible new owners/managers, Truth Army:
ReplyDeletehttps://wherepeteris.com/has-church-militant-been-taken-over-by-antisemitic-conspiracists/
It's early days. I don't know what Truth Army represents or how they intend to conduct themselves. I'll wait and see. Most of what the article cites could be explained under the heading of "Teething Pains." Let's judge them by their actions.
DeleteBad enough to pull the Church Militant YouTube video .... not a good look!
DeleteIf you don't want to be seen as conspiracy theorists, I wouldn't have thought you'd go with a name like Truth Army.
DeleteQuite so.
DeleteWell, so many of these theories have turned out to be true that it's hardly an insult anymore.
DeletePeople dislike extremist views, or the appearance of extremist views. I recall an essay written by one of the founding members of the dissident East German political movement Neues Forum, in which he wrote that the movement was initially made up of artists, actors, fringe intellectuals and homosexuals: all people who suffered under the Stasi. However, to be taken seriously by the wider public, they realised that they needed 'normal' people to join them - the taxi driver, the factory worker, the Hausfrau.
DeleteCM has spent a long time pushing the narrative that the Church is controlled by a cabal of homosexuals known as the Lavender Mafia. Yet the circumstances of the fall from grace of CM's figurehead allows all of this to be waved away as 'the gentleman doth protest too much, methinks'. This is hardly the first time when a preacher/pastor/religious figure who is publicly vehemently opposed to homosexuality has been caught in the same sin. If continuity CM wishes to be taken seriously from here by more than their own echo chamber, I would suggest that they need to tone the rhetoric down so that the 'ordinary' Catholic - the taxi driver, the factory worker, the Hausfrau - doesn't balk at being associated with them. Their mission - which I think they lost sight of - was to promote the good of the Church not the good of CM. It remains to be seen if their new incarnation will be able to find a place to humbly hold the hierarchy to account, or if it will return to publishing inflammatory stories for clicks, as the secular world does.
When one looks at the great saints who sought to call the Church back to its first love - such as Ss. Dominic and Francis - there was a reason that they a) practiced what they preached, and b) didn't name their communities things like The Order of the Flaming Lance of Justice.
The opposite problem is that when you get too far away from what it is you're supposed to be defending, you lose all definition and your cause turns into a blancmange. That's what's been happening in Rome since "The Council." I use inverted commas because modernists in the Church tend to refer to Vatican II that way as though it were the only council in the history of the Catholic Church. I'm aware "The Council" didn't cause the problems we have in the west, it was just the entrepot, but the selective citation of its documents, together with their ambiguity and the tendency to interpret them in the most liberal way possible has led to a situation where it's become increasingly difficult to distinguish Catholic from protestant. That, in its turn, has opened up space for outfits like Church Militant -- they're addressing a real concern in the Church, albeit in an unhelpful way. The fact that it also draws in people like Michael Voris doesn't negate the existence of the problem in the first place. An open wound attracts infection, but the presence of the infection doesn't mean the wound should go untreated. As long as the Church hierarchy and curia is ignoring the wound, the infections will keep coming.
DeleteYes, I believe that your diagnosis around V2 is correct. As someone put it, by 'throwing open the windows of the Church', it allowed all the rubbish to blow in. I don't think that the intention of the Council was wrong - the Church did need to address how it deals with the modern world - but the fallout from a massive information dump of documents and doctrines was unhelpful, and there were no sanctions against those who used the confusion created by changes to the liturgy, for example, to inject their own ideologies into the Church, claiming they were 'in the spirit of V2'. Doctrinal ambiguity and the Vatican's failure to correct, clarify and discipline have been long running themes.
DeleteYou are also correct that organisations like CM rise to fill the void left when the hierarchy fails to act (in a similar way that vigilante groups appear when the state fails to address crime). But people generally, and particularly religious people who tend to be more passive and agreeable, don't like to rock the boat and will underplay and excuse problems until they're hit in the face with them - at which point it's too late (cf. the Church of England). It's often the fringe characters who have the courage to speak out first - and Voris' flaws don't mean that he was wrong about everything - but there must be a place for a more reasonable organisation to fill the same role. It will only be in the interests of the hierarchy to tend the wound when they begin to suffer themselves - which in real terms means when people stop giving them money. But someone needs to find a more palatable and mainstream way of drawing attention to the wound before that happens.
Or perhaps not, and God is willing a severely pruned Church and is preparing to lop off a substantial rotten limb. One can only trust that the Almighty knows what he's doing, because nobody else seems to at the moment.