Right- wing group builds empire near Motor City

Catholic fringe organization wants to tear down wall of church and state

FERNDALE, MICH. Inside a plain, two- story brick building in Ferndale hums the nerve center for a growing, Catholic fringe group hoping the forces that elected President Trump will tear down the wall between church and state.

Church Militant broadcasts pro- life, anti- gay, anti- feminist, Islam- fearing, human- caused- climate- change- denying orthodox Catholic news on its website churchmiltant.com and through social media using high- tech, pro- fessional production studios that rival those at local TV news stations. It has 35 full- time employees ( and is hiring more) who publish about 10 stories and three videos every weekday.

Its leader, Michael Voris, has compared Trump with Constantine, the Roman emperor whom he says was “not a moral man” but a “power- hungry egomaniac,” but who saw it desirable to end the persecution of Christians. He was a human vessel who elevated Catholicism to the state religion, Voris said.

For this analogy, it’s irrelevant

whether the man has been married three times or owns casinos.

“The personal proclivities, the personal sins or life of a particular leader is a separate discussion from how that man’s view of the world might influence his policies,” Voris said. “And if that policy is favorable to the church, well then, very good.”

Many of Church Militant’s headlines are similar to those on Breitbart News, the far- right news organization that White House chief strategist Steve Bannon previously ran. Many of Breitbart’s articles are cited on the Church Militant website. But unlike Breitbart, Church Militant is under a Christian, 501( c)( 3) non- profit organization.

It’s not affiliated with the Catholic Church, which has taken action to distance itself from Church Militant. And Voris said he doesn’t think his organization’s political statements are violating what he calls the “stupid” restriction on political campaign intervention for tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service.

Church and state have long been linked in this country, he said, and the combination of social media and Trump in the White House have altered the notion of mainstream media.

“The entire established order has been thrown up into the air,” Voris said. “What we say now has some credence. We’re allowed into the discussion.”

Church Militant’s audience includes more than 180,000 Facebook likes, about 30,000 YouTube subscribers and nearly 12,000 Twitter followers. Voris estimates the operation, including social media and the website, accumulates about 1 million to 1.5 million online views per month.

A report the Detroit Free Press ran using SimilarWeb analytics, which don’t measure social media traffic, estimates the website had a six- month peak of more than 750,000 visits in October and about 531,000 in December.

The organization’s global audience is about 10 times bigger than it was five years ago, and Voris said the non- profit’s revenue is “well past” seven figures — but declined to be specific. In 2014, the non- profit St. Michael’s Media that is connected to Church Militant reported total revenue of more than $ 1.6 million, according to the 990 form it is required by the IRS to submit every year.

Voris said the heart of what they do is Catholic theology. They operate as a news source with analysis and commentary, the “news is a door into the theology,” and premium users receive additional theological content, he said. He also said he thinks Trump’s presidency “will even the playing field,” allowing for his apostolate’s influence to spread.

“The problem with America is America never sat down and had the right discussion about which religion is the right religion,” Voris said, adding that Trump is making that discussion possible.

Years ago, Voris caused an uproar when he said this in one of his videos: “The only way to run a country is by benevolent dictatorship, a Catholic monarch who protects his people from themselves and bestows on them what they need, not necessarily what they want.”

The Free Press previously reported that he apologized. But Voris last Monday said he “didn’t apologize for the principle.” He said Americans have been living in a “secular dictatorship,” and solid moral principles are expressed in Catholicism “more perfectly than any other” source.

“When it comes to moral issues, look what Obama threatened: North Carolina said it would not abide by transgender bathrooms,” he said, adding that Obama said he’d “pull $ 30 billion of your funding. How is that not a dictatorship?”

( After North Carolina passed a law regarding gay and transgender rights, President Obama’s administration considered withholding federal funding. But USA TODAY reported in May 2016 that the administration decided not to; instead, it pursued a separate enforcement action in federal court. Reuters reported the state stood to lose $ 4.8 billion, mostly in education grants.)

Mark Weitzman, based in New York for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, describes Church Militant as “radical traditionalist Catholics.” He said such organizations are a small movement “with some influence and the ability to make a lot of noise.”

They espouse beliefs that God’s promises to the Jewish people were stripped away and assigned to Christians after the coming of Jesus, resulting in ideas that are theologically — not racially — anti- Semitic, Weitzman said.

Voris said that one doesn’t speak “in terms of theology, of being anti- religion,” and that “being anti- Semitic is, it’s a political term ... that’s supposed to shut down conversation.”

Voris said he isn’t a “secret Nazi white supremacist.” When the

Free Press asked him about Weitzman, Voris said, “I consider him an extreme leftist Marxist, probably bordering on atheist.”

Weitzman said that for these groups, religious liberty is a “difficult and disquieting concept” that they’ll do what they can to chip away at it.

“The personal proclivities, the personal sins or life of a particular leader is a separate discussion from how that man’s view of the world might influence his policies.” Michael Voris, Church Militant leader

SALWAN GEORGES, DETROIT FREE PRESS Church Militant has been at odds with the Roman Catholic Church, which has warned the group led by Michael Voris, second from left, not to promote itself as Catholic.

SALWAN GEORGES, DETROIT FREE PRESS Church Militant’s leader Michael Voris, right, says church and state have long been linked in America.