The founder of a right-wing religious media outlet has been ousted for allegedly breaking the “morality code”—and he said he is stepping aside to “address and work on horrible, ugly things.”
“I need to conquer these demons,” Michael Voris, 62, said in a rambling social media video following his resignation.
Neither he nor Church Militant, the outlet Voris founded, provided details of his transgression, which he described as “embarrassing.”
“We understand this is a shock to you all,” Church Militant said in a statement. “The board of directors has chosen not to disclose Michael’s private matters to the public.”
Although Church Militant calls itself a Catholic apostolate, the Archdiocese of Detroit has disavowed it. The group is highly critical of American bishops, the LGBTQ community, and even Pope Francis.
Voris was a former national and local reporter when he founded the organization in 2006. He later said he had lived a “sinful” life that included sexual relationships with men and women.
In his video, Voris said he planned to concentrate on what he called his “spiritual terror.”
“In one sense I am kind of relieved that I, anyway, personally have reached this point. I have been looking at the ugliness surfacing inside, have not liked it... a number of times i have written my resignation in my head.”
He said his “failings” and “own personal behavior” should not shake anyone else’s faith in Church Militant’s extreme brand of Catholicism.
“Nothing touches the mission,” he said.
“Do not let the moral failings, the fear, all my stuff, move over onto the apostolate.”