Patrick Coffin

Patrick Coffin is a Catholic author, speaker and podcaster who hosted the Catholic Answers Live radio programme for about seven and a half years before leaving at the end of September 2016 to start his own media projects, including The Patrick Coffin Show (Catholic Stand; National Catholic Register). He also organised the online Hope Is Fuel conference series (UCA News).

By 2023 Coffin was publicly arguing that Pope Francis was not a legitimate pope. He told OSV News that he regarded Francis as an "anti-pope" presiding during an "interregnum", and his blog argued that Benedict XVI's resignation was invalid and that Benedict's departure and Francis's election had been orchestrated by the so-called St. Gallen "mafia" (UCA News/OSV News; Catholic Review). Catholic Answers responded to his video "Seven Pieces of Evidence That Francis Is an Antipope" on its Focus podcast with Joe Heschmeyer, who characterised the position as a form of benevacantism (Catholic Answers; Catholic Review); see Benevacantism.

The stance cost him partners. On 11 May 2023 the Magis Center posted a message from Fr. Robert Spitzer: "I was made aware today, May 11th 2023, that Patrick Coffin has challenged the authenticity of the Pope Francis. I do not hold his position and would never hold this position" (Magis Center on X). Bishop Joseph Strickland first endorsed Spitzer's decision and then posted his own statement rejecting what he called the pope's program of undermining the deposit of faith (America); see Bishop Strickland's removal. OSV News reported that Spitzer, Jeff Cavins and Jennifer Roback Morse, along with 17 other speakers, had cancelled their appearances at Coffin's 24 May 2023 Hope Is Fuel conference; Morse said the inclusion of E. Michael Jones was a dealbreaker for her. Jones told OSV News he stood by the premise of his book The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit, and Coffin said the theologian Dawn Eden Goldstein had deliberately targeted his speakers (UCA News/OSV News). The ADL describes Jones's writings as antisemitic (ADL). See Judaism and antisemitism and papal-critique and resistance media.

Platforms and critics. Catholic World Report described his 2016 departure from Catholic Answers as a move into entrepreneurial media. In 2022 the philosopher Edward Feser wrote that Coffin had been promoting a benevacantist view (Feser). The apologist Steve Ray, who says he once did about 100 shows with Coffin, called the arguments weak (Stephen K. Ray). The blog Where Peter Is, a critic, reports that YouTube permanently banned Coffin after he promoted a "Truth Over Fear" summit on COVID-19 and the "Great Reset" (Where Peter Is). His guests have included Robert Moynihan, who discussed Archbishop Viganò (Patrick Coffin Media). See From mainstream to the margins.