A far-right Catholic website is shutting down after 18 years — here's why

Catholicism has plenty of representation in the Democratic Party, including President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) — both of whom consider themselves devout Catholics and aren't shy about discussing their faith. But a far-right approach to Catholicsm has prevailed on the U.S. Supreme Court with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett. And the website Church Militant has been a voice for the Catholic far right — until now.

According to the Daily Beast, Church Militant (formerly Real Catholic TV) will be folding in April "after settling a defamation lawsuit filed by a canon lawyer and priest with an apology and $500,000 payment."

"The impending closure, announced by the law firm that represented the priest, comes just four months after Church Militant founder Michael Voris was ousted for breaking its 'morality code' — reportedly by sending out shirtless pictures of himself," the Beast reports.

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Church Militant, founded by Voris in 2006, was sued by Father Georges de Laire of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. De Laire, according to the Beast, "was smeared as unstable and vindictive in an article after he decreed that St. Benedict Center, an organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, could not represent itself as a Catholic institution."

The Beast reports, "The article was anonymously written, but the author was later revealed to be canon lawyer Marc Balestrieri, who was representing St. Benedict Center, Religion News Service reported. Church Militant said on its site last week that Balestrieri led it and St. Michael's Media, which operates the network, to believe 'that the claims in his article were supported by anonymous sources known to him'…. The months before the resolution of the lawsuit were turbulent ones for Church Militant."

The Beast adds, "Beset by financial troubles, it laid off 19 employees and scrapped its nightly news show in May."

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The Daily Beast's full article is available at this link (subscription required).