The controversial and lately increasingly embattled Catholic media outlet Church Militant is shutting down in April after settling its latest defamation lawsuit with a $500,000 payment.
It follows another defamation lawsuit that Church Militant brought against traditionalist Catholic podcaster Mike Parrott, after he accused the founder of Church Militant, Michael Voris, of living a homosexual lifestyle and mismanaging money, reports Detroit Catholic.
It is estimated that case, which dragged on for nearly two years, could have cost Church Militant at least $1.5 million in legal fees.
At the end of 2023, Voris was ousted for breaking the company’s “morality code”. This reportedly included sending shirtless pictures of himself to male staffers and to a donor.
Voris launched Church Militant—initially called Real Catholic TV until the Catholic Church objected—in 2006 to address what he called “serious erosion” of the Faith and to counter any progressive movement, reports the Daily Beast.
On its website, Church Militant describes its mission as follows:
“Under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel, the mission of Church Militant is to promote the faith given to humanity by Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Messiah…Church Militant aims to provide everyone with means to increase their personal holiness through catechesis and evangeli[s]ation about the truth of the Christian faith.
“We aim to convert non-Catholics to the faith founded personally by Jesus Christ, and strengthen the faith of existing Catholics. Church Militant aims to achieve this by bringing Jesus Christ to the internet through the use of digital media.”
Known for its provocative content, Church Militant runs feature stories, though a majority of its reporting focuses on Church scandals, clergy abusers, accusations of Bishops mishandling abuse cases and the like. In recent years, Detroit Catholic notes, Voris amplified controversial figures such as the right-wing media personality Milo Yiannopoulos and the controversial Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
The latest defamation case was brought by the Rev. Georges de Laire of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, the Daily Best reports, after he was described as unstable and vindictive in a Church Militant article for his criticism of the St. Benedict Center in rural Richmond, New Hampshire.
This included him saying the centre could not represent itself as a Catholic institution due to going against official Church doctrine. The centre is run by a religious group that has unapproved orders for men and women and differs in “its ideology regarding salvation”, reports Our Sunday Visitor.
The anonymous article was later revealed to have been written by canon lawyer Marc Balestrieri, who was representing St. Benedict Center, Religion News Service revealed.
Suzanne Elovecky, one of the attorneys representing de Laire, told the National Catholic Reporter back in 2021 that the decision to bring legal action was made “for the sake of accountability and truth telling, which Fr. de Laire viewed as important for him and the community at large.”
Last November, Voris officially resigned as the head of Church Militant for having reportedly broken the organization’s “morality clause,” though the specific action wasn’t revealed.
“Sometimes it takes very horrible events, even at your own hand, in your life to surface certain things that need to be faced,” Voris said in a video posted to X at the time.
“There are some very, very ugly truths from my past that I, for essentially 62 years, have avoided facing because … I wanted them resolved, but I understand that touching that pain is going to be a very horrible thing.”
In a recent statement on its website, Church Militant said that Balestrieri led it and St. Michael’s Media (SMM), which operates the network, to believe “that the claims in his article were supported by anonymous sources known to him”, the Daily Beast reports.
“SMM and Church Militant regret that the article was not properly vetted,” the statement said. “It was later revealed that Mr. Balestrieri could not substantiate his claims regarding Father de Laire with any credible sources.”
“Further, Mr. Balestrieri did not disclose to SMM his active involvement in a canonical dispute in which he was representing a client and Father de Laire was representing the Church at the time he wrote the article, which would have raised questions about the motive behind the anonymous allegations in the article prior to its publication.”
It added: “SMM sincerely apologizes for their part in any distress or damage they may have caused Father de Laire.”
Leading up to the announcement of the settling of the case with Father de Laire and the closure of the website, in addition to Voris being forced out in November 2023, Church Militant had to sell off real estate and lay off 19 employees.
At the time of writing, it had garnered just over 52,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.