Church Militant to shutdown following defamation of priest

The combative and brash Catholic media outlet Church Militant will shut down following a $500,000 judgment against it for defamation. The news site plans to close in April after Father Georges de Laire brought the suit against Church Militant. The lawsuit resulted from an article the outlet ran in 2019 on Father Laire. The article, titled “NH Vicar Changes Dogma Into Heresy,” did not name a single source with its allegations.

The article credited negative information and claims against Father Laire, judicial vicar of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, to anonymous sources. The article claimed the vicar was “emotionally unstable” and “incompetent.” It claimed the vicar had “botched” multiple cases because of his instability and inability to effectively rule on cases.

St. Michael’s Media, the parent company of Church Militant, founded by Michael Voris in 2006, released a statement on the settlement. “SMM and Church Militant regret that the article was not properly vetted. It was later revealed that Mr. Balestrieri could not substantiate his claims regarding Father de Laire with any credible source,” the statement said. “Further, Mr. Balestrieri did not disclose to SMM his active involvement in a canonical dispute in which he was representing a client and Father de Laire was representing the Church at the time he wrote the article, which would have raised questions about the motive behind the anonymous allegations in the article prior to its publication.”

Balestrieri, the canon lawyer that once represented Voris, is the author of the article, according to Church Militant. However, Balestrieri denies writing the inaccurate and slanderous article that has caused the site to close its doors. In a statement to OSV, he wrote, “On February 20, 2024, I telephoned Saint Michael’s Media’s attorney, Stephen Martin and Seth Hipple, and spoke at length with them both, informing them – prior to their entering into the agreement for judgment of February 27 on behalf of their clients – that all of the information I provided as a source was true and that there are witnesses, including myself among them, and documentation able to corroborate what Church Militant reported in the article.”

St. Michael’s Media maintains that Balestrieri is, indeed, the author of the article and did not make any efforts to defend the lawsuit. If he was in possession of documentation substantiating his claims in the article. Church Militant’s failure to utilize proper layout and practices for news sites, such as a byline crediting the story to the author when it is published, would easily have prevented the battle over the writer of the inaccurate statements and, perhaps, personally driven defamation motives. It also appears the news agency was not diligent in vetting the allegations it released about Church officials and events. Balestrieri has won his defamation suit after the news outlet settled out of court. The question now becomes: “who else is a victim of defamation and blasphemy by the site?”