There are enough emails in my box asking me my take on the resignation of Michael Voris from Church Militant to merit a post.
CM issued a statement that Michael was asked to resign for breaching their “morality clause”.
Michael Voris posted his own explanation on Twitter/X.
God Love You pic.twitter.com/SBRFDP9vKD
— Michael Voris (@Michael_Voris) November 21, 2023
Michael’s video statement contained some pretty dark implications, about which we can guess, but which haven’t been disclosed. Some radical healing is in order.
I’ve had concerns about the whole of Church Militant for a while. I made a choice not to watch most of what pops up in my various feeds.
That’s now apart from this new development with Michael, whom I’ve known and had been personally cordial with over the years.
To use a cliche, the Church isn’t a museum of the perfect, but a “field hospital” for sinners. The analogy limps a bit because while field hospitals are mostly concerned with wounds inflicted by external forces, while the Church also treats sheer victims, she treats mostly the self-inflicted wounds from sin. It’s still a useful image.
Field hospitals, set up for disasters and battles, are temporary places. The Church Militant is temporary. This isn’t the end of the battle, it is the midst of the battle. In battle we struggle against human frailty and the fog of war.
At a field hospital, after the icy process of triage, there is screaming and stench. People are patched up so that they can be moved elsewhere. There follows continued care, rehab, counseling.
Another fact of a field hospital is that some people don’t make it out alive.
Not everyone in the Church is going to be saved.
How about you? Are you presuming upon God’s friendship?
From battlefield medic, to field hospital, to trauma center, to rehab, to counseling there are various stages of brutal horror along with heroic wonder. In its gruesome challenge there is also beauty, mystery.
We should be humble when we are witnesses to this process.
Not a one of us hasn’t needed and doesn’t need mercy.
We are going get justice from God whether we want it or not. Mercy, however, is ours but we have to ask for it.
People are so swift to desire for others what they imagine as “justice”. Our Lord wants us to be contrite of heart and merciful.
My take on Michael’s video? It’s not just an admission of faults and wounds, but also a request for mercy, at least in the form of prayers and some understanding about human fragility.
In my view, in this march upcountry in the present Church Militant we have “man down”… a “man overboard”. This requires an immediate response of that which is salvific rather than betrayal. You don’t keep sailing, you throw a rope and heave to. You don’t leave your brother in the ditch, you grab his arm and pull him to safety.
Already I’ve seen the ugly starting on Twitter, etc., lots of people piling on, railing at and about him, etc. It seems to me pretty vile to kick a man when he is at a spiritual low point and struggling to rise. Some of what I’ve seen written so far from the trad side…
I’ll just remind you of what Our Lord explained about forgiveness, the only thing in the Our Father He went back to explain. If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven. PERIOD.
Examine your own consciences.
If you have some real problem with Voris, then your best bet is to pray for him and offer willing mortifications for his benefit.
I ask Our Blessed Mother to cover him with her protective mantle. I ask St. Michael to protect him from spiritual and temporal harm. I ask St. Joseph to banish demons from his struggles. I ask Christ the High Priest to cover him with His Precious Blood and to bring him healing and peace.
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Well said, Father. Under it all is a hurting child I believe. Let us pray for him. The sage advice of Philip Neri tells us, “Lord, I am another Judas and if you do not keep your hands on me, I will betray you.” That really is all of us. We really all have that capability. I pray for Voris as a fellow sinner myself and I hope he finds solace in the heart of Christ. Toward the end of his vide he mentions that even if some of these things weren’t his fault. That is a heavy burden, and I weep for the boy Michael Voris. We live in an age of anxiety and great wounds. I pray he, we, all of us find solace in Jesus.
There are really Catholics reveling in this? I don’t imagine I share the same vices as Mr. Voris, but I know there are things that I did before my reversion that I’m not proud of. Heck, there are things I did last week that I’m not proud of.
Sometimes Michael Voris rubbed me the wrong way, but he has been a great foot soldier for the Church Militant. I pray that he can find peace in our Lord and heal from any self-inflicted wounds he incurred in his life, especially his life pre-conversion.
Thank you for this Father Z and well said. I saw similar things in Twitter last night. Enough. I used to watch a lot of CM bit moved away from it. I feel the same with some blogs and Catholic media too…..(not this one of course!!). It’s easy to sling mud with the modern tech media we have. I’ll pray for Voris and that he gets the help he needs.
I had a priest once during confession say to me about judging others ‘When we are in sin how can we judge someone else?’. I’ve got loads of my own issues to deal with and need God’s help vs me to piling on to others for their faults.
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I am relieved to see the sincere expression of humility from Mr. Voris.
Having gotten deeply disenchanted with Church Militant about a year ago by what I perceived to be calumny and hubris, his video is an example of grace at work in a man’s life. He is a talented guy. He deserves our prayerful support. Who of us is without sin?
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Luke 18:13
May the good Lord bring His all of us to perfection.
Fr. Z. well put. Your priestly words ring of Ben Franklin’s sermon on Thanksgiving Day “To bear other people’s afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare”. We need to be thankful for our Church, her ministers, and the sacraments of healing and forgiveness. Without these we would be adrift and militant without reason or cause.
A Happy Thanksgiving to you and your readers.
-a thankful priest.
Fine post, Father.
Thank you, Father. I also saw some so-called ‘trads’ reveling in Michael’s fall and found it quite disturbing. On the contrary, one of the kindest reactions to Michael’s video was from a well-known progressive Catholic. Whether you like Voris or not, we’re all just one mortal sin from a bad fall. He needs our prayers and we shouldn’t hesitate to offer them.
I’m glad you weighed in, Fr Z. Back in the day, CM was a pretty solitary voice asking relevant questions about church matters to churchmen, in particular the ugly nature of things we now know much more about in part because of CM, asking the questions other people were afraid to ask. He is a very talented man, with a gift for clarity and communication. It is disconcerting to see Catholics reveling, a reflection of our ugly times. I’m sure there are many Catholics hoping and praying Michael receives the healing he needs and returns one day to continue working in the vineyard, where he is needed. God be with him.
You are so right Father. As Our Lord said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. If at all my stone will be way back in the firing line. There but for the grace of God go I. AMDG
“In my view, in this march upcountry in the present Church Militant we have “man down”… a “man overboard”. This requires an immediate response of that which is salvific rather than betrayal. You don’t keep sailing, you throw a rope and heave to. You don’t leave your brother in the ditch, you grab his arm and pull him to safety.
Already I’ve seen the ugly starting on Twitter, etc., lots of people piling on, railing at and about him, etc. It seems to me pretty vile to kick a man when he is at a spiritual low point and struggling to rise. Some of what I’ve seen written so far from the trad side…”
Thank you for the reminder. Well said.
One thing that has pleased me to see is the amount of charity being shown to Voris from within orthodox/trad sources.
Naturally there are secular and liberal voices behaving differently.
What has really impressed me are the calls for prayer and complete absence of animus from some of those who have been on the wrong side of Voris in the past.
Thank you Fr for your post!
The moment I heard about this yesterday I started praying for him. I’m also trying very hard not to read comments that are popping up everywhere. I’m a sinner also, and as I hope in God’s mercy I pray that God be merciful to him, and all of us also.
I just want to point out that active sexual activity is NOT the only grave area in which someone can fall. I think and hopehopehope it’s erroneous to presume that Michael fell into gay activity again. I think it’s been pretty obvious to a lot of us — especially those of us with close connections to the gay community — that Michael hasn’t faced his demons. The wounds that lead to homosexuality go DEEP and aren’t simple to overcome. And they can lead to poor judgment; the consequences of that bad judgment can be as damaging and scandalous as full-on sodomy or adultery.
I count it a privilege to pray for Michael, Christine, and all the folks who are or have been employed by CM.
…
Naked I wait Thy love’s uplifted stroke!
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me,
And smitten me to my knee;
I am defenceless utterly.
I slept, methinks, and woke,
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
In the rash lustihead of my young powers,
I shook the pillaring hours
And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears,
I stand amid the dust o’ the mounded years—
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.
Yea, faileth now even dream
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist;
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed.
Ah! is Thy love indeed
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,
Suffering no flowers except its own to mount?
Ah! must—Designer infinite!—
Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it?
My freshness spent its wavering shower i’ the dust;
And now my heart is as a broken fount,
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever
From the dank thoughts that shiver
Upon the sighful branches of my mind.
Such is; what is to be?
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind?
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
From the hid battlements of Eternity;
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then
Round the half-glimpsèd turrets slowly wash again.
But not ere him who summoneth
I first have seen, enwound
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned;
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.
Whether man’s heart or life it be which yields
Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields
Be dunged with rotten death?
Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:
‘And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set thee love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught’ (He said),
‘And human love needs human meriting:
How hast thou merited—
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art!
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.’
___
from The Hound Of Heaven
by Francis Thompson (1859–1907)
May I paraphrase OurLady, OurQueen?:
“Human charity will grow cold”.
Yes, Mr Voris is on the world stage. Lots of stones being cast and their thud is being heard far and wide.
May Mr Voris be kept safe in the folds of her mantle and be led to a place of healing and restoration in her Son.
I will and have prayed for Voris. As part of his comeback, will he apoligize publicly for the Tradional Priests
he has viciously slandered publicly? As a public figure has he done more good than bad for the Church Militant?
Good post, Father!
We are ALL sinners. And imperfect. We all need to repent and ask for God’s mercy.
Great lesson for everyone to be grateful to Our Lord for the precious time He grants us in this life.
Mr Voris needed every second of those 62 years to reach this point.
Thanks, Fr. Z. Voris and CM have done a lot of positive things for the Church, and his personal faults (whatever they are) don’t prove otherwise. I have only lightly dipped into the wide array of news and offerings from CM, and maybe 10% of the time I have thought Voris was more strident or more certain of an uncertain issue than I thought he should be, but that’s at all a bad batting average – far better than the bishops’ batting averages, that’s for sure.
Like all sinners, he needs our prayers. And since I am also in that group of “all sinners”, can you add me to your list? Thanks. I will feel no shame in someone asking for mercy for Michael, and for me in the next breath.
Let’s keep it simple…pray for him.
Well said, Father, as always. Yes, we must pray hard for Mr. Voris – not just for his sake but for our own, too, as a Spiritual Act of Mercy. Voris is just the latest Catholic with Satan’s iron grip on his leg to drag him down (remember Fr. Corapi?). For some of us our turn is coming and we will be the ones in need of prayers.
Here’s my take on Michael Voris: His is an excellent example of witnessing to the faith. What more can Christ want of any of us than to recognize our failures and take those remedial steps made available to us by Christ’s death and resurrection. We should all be joyful: our brother who was lost has returned. Put a ring on his finger, place a mantle of new clothes on him and prepare the feast.
extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes,
Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum
I hope I’m never famous.
Thank you for your post. I listened to Michael’s video and it’s sad to see people after listening to him can just pile on. Christine Niles also has a good video about CM and Michael.
Love, your ending prayer.
“I ask Our Blessed Mother to cover him with her protective mantle. I ask St. Michael to protect him from spiritual and temporal harm. I ask St. Joseph to banish demons from his struggles. I ask Christ the High Priest to cover him with His Precious Blood and to bring him healing and peace.“
I saw a Twitter post from Christine Niles who also resigned from CM but a few days before Voris. I saw the post on LifesiteNews. She did reveal one thing, that she had become concerned that Michael had stopped praying and no longer attended the organizations morning and evening prayer or rosary. That would certainly contribute to falling into sin, knowing the devil is there like a roaring lion waiting to devour.
this case is a great reminder that there really is no such thing as a private sin. even as a widower who lives alone and in obscurity, my sins have an impact on other people. the means and degree of that impact may be difficult to discover, but they’re there nonetheless. hoping i am in the confessional tomorrow.
Thankfully, I have been spared from seeing any of the “negative” responses to Mr. Voris. Thankfully, I have been overwhelmed at the charity I have seen from anyone whose opinion I value (Fr. Z!). The beautiful responses of praying for Michael make me proud to be Catholic! Can you imagine if we all had to make a video, asking for prayers because of our sins?!!!! Michael is certainly no different from anyone of us; especially those of us who struggle with the same sin over and over. I pray that Michael finds the healing he so desperately needs and he will have my fervent prayers during this trial.
As an adult there has to be a moment of conversion, where the cradle catholic yields to something more. Michael was the one I found when I went looking for my adult faith online. He’s taught me so much. It’s made a world of difference for me and my family. I am ever grateful.
We all have to acknowledge the darkness in our past life. Michael’s pain is clearly more deep than mine. and yet in speaking through his pain in the video, he continues to teach and remind me that to actually live my belief in God; I have to trust and submit to Him even when it is not the path of least resistance, that the spiritual battle is real. I’m praying for him.
And for all those trads online who talk a good game but by their gloating, obviously don’t actually know how to play it – show some charity! Your embarassing the rest of us.
Thank you Father, for this post.
I stopped paying any attention to Church Militant a long time ago. In their zeal to go after some really bad people in the Church, they have long been perfectly content to cause immense collateral damage to innocent people. I have no tolerance of such a procedure. As far as Voris is concerned, I would never condemn the man in his sins, as I have my own to be concerned with. But Voris as a “journalist” was supremely unfair and lacking in all charity. And he was not even the worst character at CM.
“Lord, I am another Judas and if you do not keep your hands on me, I will betray you.” Wow, thank you BeatifyStickler for sharing this (and St. Phillip Neri of course). Too true. Michael had his personal burdens; he made no secret of that. I too cringed a little at his methods, but I believe that he is largely resonsible for bringing the truth of sexual abuse in the Church to the light. He carried the burden of some terrible truths; my heart aches for the pain he has endured. Save us Lord, we are drowning.
We all have feet of clay; we all have our own personal demons that we struggle with. Mr. Voris is no different than the rest of us. He needs our prayers. However, I recall to mind a line from the Psalms: “Put not your trust in princes…” If you do, then you will be disappointed. There have many people in the media, even on EWTN, that have much good to say but are flawed. The question is does the “clay” of the messenger taint the message. Since I do not follow him, I cannot answer that question concerning Mr. Voris, but must leave it to others.
Thank you, Father. I have known Michael for many years, since the first days of St Michael’s Media. He is wounded and needs prayer – not condemnation. I am grateful for your comments about him, and for the prayers of others for my dear friend who is suffering.