Background
Overview
Church Militant was an online Catholic news and video service run by St. Michael's Media, a nonprofit in Ferndale, Michigan. Within roughly five months it lost its founder and then its existence as a news operation. On November 21, 2023, the organization announced that founder Michael Voris had resigned at the board's request. In late February 2024 it settled a federal defamation lawsuit brought by a New Hampshire priest, paid him $500,000, retracted the article at issue, apologized, and represented that Church Militant would cease operations at the end of April 2024 (AP; OSV News).
Background
Voris founded St. Michael's Media in 2006, and by 2023 it employed more than 40 full-time staff, according to the Associated Press. Its video service, first called RealCatholicTV, renamed itself ChurchMilitant.TV in June 2012 after the Archdiocese of Detroit said it did not regard the group as authorized under canon law to use the word "Catholic" in promoting its activities (Catholic News Agency).
The outlet's relationship with Church authorities remained strained. In June 2020 the Archdiocese of Detroit condemned language in a Church Militant video about Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington as racist and derogatory, and stated that Church Militant was not affiliated with, endorsed or recommended by the archdiocese and was not recognized as a Church apostolate (Catholic World Report). The outlet also drew national attention through rallies held near the U.S. bishops' fall meetings in Baltimore; in 2021 a federal judge and then the Fourth Circuit ruled that the city could not block one such rally (Catholic World Report; AP).
The defamation case
The lawsuit that ended the outlet concerned an unsigned article published on churchmilitant.com on January 17, 2019, about Fr. Georges de Laire, judicial vicar of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. According to OSV News, the article disparaged the priest's emotional stability and competence. De Laire sued in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, and the case ran for about three years (OSV News).
In settling, St. Michael's Media acknowledged that it lacked credible sources for the article, while still maintaining that it had been written by a canon lawyer rather than by its own staff, OSV News reported. Catholic writer Simcha Fisher, who followed the case through court filings, covered the settlement in detail (Simcha Fisher).
The founder's resignation
On November 21, 2023, the St. Michael's Media board said Voris had been asked to resign for breaching the Church Militant morality clause and that it had accepted his resignation. The board declined to disclose details. Voris posted a video statement of nearly 14 minutes on X in which he apologized without specifying the reason for his departure (AP; OSV News via Detroit Catholic). This entry does not speculate about the nature of the breach, which the organization did not make public.
Settlement and announced closure
The settlement was made public at the turn of February and March 2024. De Laire's law firm, Todd & Weld, announced in a March 1 press release that Church Militant would cease operating at the end of April (National Catholic Reporter). The package consisted of a public apology, a retraction of the 2019 article, and a $500,000 payment; AP reported that a lawyer for the priest said the outlet had represented it would shut down at the end of April (AP; Catholic World Report).
Voris was named individually in the suit and was not part of the organization's settlement. A trial on the claims against him had been scheduled for mid-April 2024 (OSV News). Simcha Fisher later reported, citing court filings and de Laire's attorney, that Voris resolved his part of the case in 2024 with a written apology; she reported that the attorney said a substantial payment accompanied it, which Voris denied.
Aftermath
Detroit Metro Times reported that churchmilitant.com had shut down, that an email to subscribers titled "Final Correspondence" attributed the closure to scandals and obstacles it described as insurmountable, and that the organization was reportedly selling its two Ferndale office buildings. The same report described a second email, from a Houston, Texas, address with a new logo, promising new content. At the time, the future of the parent organization was unclear (OSV News).
The end was not entirely orderly. In March 2024 a former staff member appeared in a video on Church Militant's YouTube channel representing a new organization, Truth Army, which he said was managing St. Michael's Media's assets with a focus on spiritual rather than news content, according to an AP report quoted by Where Peter Is. Where Peter Is also reported that the outlet's web-hosting company filed a $3 million lawsuit alleging tortious interference with a contract.
Official statements and reactions
The principal public statements came from the St. Michael's Media board (on Voris's resignation), from de Laire's lawyers (on the settlement and closure), and, earlier, from the Archdiocese of Detroit, which had twice publicly distanced itself from the outlet (2011–2012 and 2020). Commentary from Catholic writers critical of the outlet, including Simcha Fisher and Where Peter Is, focused on accountability for the 2019 article and on whether the shutdown was final. Sourced reactions from other traditionalist and conservative outlets have not yet been compiled for this entry.
What to watch
- Whether any successor venture linked to former Church Militant leadership or assets resurfaces under a new name; this entry found no verified reporting of one after 2024.
- The outcome of residual litigation, including the hosting-company suit described by Where Peter Is.
- How the case is cited in debates about accountability and sourcing in Catholic online media, particularly for anonymous or unsigned reporting about named clergy.