The Entire Board Should Resign

Part 1: Another "Dynamic Founder" goes off the rails

Background & Disclosure: Church Militant (CM) is a non-profit, Catholic news and analysis website founded by Michael Voris in 2007. I was a reporter for Church Militant from December 2, 2019, to March 31, 2023, when approximately one third of the staff was laid off.

Both before I was laid off and after, I have been critical of the organization’s governance. CM’s management chaos is part of what motivated me to launch Trust But Verify. But in CM’s defense, lack of understanding of the role and importance of a board is a pervasive problem in the non-profit sector. Church Militant is just the most recent crash-and-burn example.

Voris is typical of a phenomenon known as the “dynamic founder.” He made a name for himself by calling out corruption in the Catholic Church at a time when no one else dared. On November 21, Church Militant’s Board of Directors asked for Voris’ resignation, citing his violation of the organization’s morality clause. It isn’t the first time Voris and his employee board have been in crisis.

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Amidst the handwringing over Michael Voris’ ouster last week, there’s been little analysis of the board of directors’ role in the meltdown or what the future holds for the organization.

So for the moment, let’s set aside the question of “what did Voris do?” and instead, ask, “What did the board of directors do?” and “What should be done now?”

One thing we know for sure, while Church Militant devotees are cruising on the February Retreat at Sea with stand-in hosts Brad Eli and Jules Gomez, jury selection is scheduled to begin in New Hampshire’s U.S. District Court, where Gary Michael Voris, Anita Carey, St. Michael’s Media a/k/a Church Militant, and Marc Balestrieri are defendants in a libel case brought by Very Reverend Georges F. de Laire, J.C.L.

With more than sixty days until trial, it is always possible the case will settle. Attorneys on both sides typically want to avoid a jury trial where the outcome can be an O. J. Simpson surprise. It’s also very expensive to go to trial. But if either side feels he/she has a very strong case, settlement may be off the table.

In this case, it’s not clear how Voris’ resignation will impact settlement negotiations or a trial. Given the Board’s invocation of the morality clause in connection with Voris and Church Militant’s various shenanigans in its conduct of this case, de Laire’s resolve to press through to trial may well be strengthened.

And at the moment, it also isn’t clear who is at the helm to lead these important legal negotiations. Now that Church Militant has called for Voris’ resignation, will Church Militant engage legal counsel separate from Voris?

These are questions the Board of Directors will have to answer.

The New Hampshire lawsuit is a very dark cloud hanging over the organization. But more on that in upcoming Part 2: Another Dynamic Founder Goes Off the Rails.

An In-Bred Board

St. Michael’s Media, popularly known as Church Militant, is a 501(c)3 organization with the legal privilege of being tax exempt. Furthermore, donors’ charitable gifts to the organization are potentially tax deductible. These are important financial advantages that distinguish a non-profit organization from a privately-held enterprise.

Responsibility for a non-profit organization’s assets and overall direction lies not with a single owner, or even the founder, but with a board of directors.

CM’s June 26, 2023, annual report filing with the state of Michigan, shows the following individuals were members of St. Michael’s Media’s board of directors:

1.     Michael Voris, President

2.     Philip Haapala, Treasurer

3.     Charles Hornbacher

4.     Mary McCann, Secretary

5.     Christine Niles

6.     Marc Rivard

7.     Mike Sherry

8.     Susan Vance

Trust But Verify reached out to Mike Sherry for confirmation of this list and the names of any new members who may have been added in the interim. Sources say Sherry is Church Militant’s newly-elected board president. He did not respond to the inquiry by press time.

Unlike many nonprofit organizations, Church Militant has never published the names of its board members on its website. However, the names of the board members can be found on CM’s annual IRS tax Form 990 and on a report required annually by the state of Michigan.

According to a review of past 990s, there were major changes on the Board between 2019 and 2020 with six people dropping off. Otherwise, the names listed above have been fairly consistent. Voris, Haapala, Hornbacher, Niles, Rivard, Sherry, and Vance have served consecutively since at least 2016. The only missing name is Chief of Staff Simon Rafe, who also served during this period but disappeared from the board sometime between 2022 and 2023.

Perhaps the reason CM never published the names of its board members was the very embarrassing fact that every person on the Board, except Rivard (one of Voris’ closest friends) was an employee directly reporting to Michael Voris.

One of the chief responsibilities of a non-profit board is to supervise the CEO, the person who runs the day-to-day operations of the organization – in this case, CM’s board of directors’ job was to supervise Voris.

Since at least 2016 (perhaps longer), Voris has been supervised by employees he hired and who report directly to him. While it is not illegal to have this kind of board arrangement, it is not recommended, for obvious reasons.

Here’s typical advice on the practice:

“[Having employees serve on the Board is] not in the best interest of the nonprofit and can lead to potential conflicts of interest between the person’s duties to act in the nonprofit’s best interest as a board member and his or her self-interest as an employee. For this reason, the vast majority of board members of charitable nonprofits serve as unpaid volunteers, and many nonprofits expressly forbid board members to serve as employees.”

Having an independent board is so important, IRS Form 990 specifically asks how many board members are independent.

Having a board composed almost exclusively of employees is simply not done. Voris and/or his employee board members were either ignorant of this problem or chose to ignore it. Perhaps they thought no one would notice.

Simply put: Church Militant is in this particular crisis because the board members who turned a blind eye to Voris’s problems in 2016 are exactly the same people who have been enabling his brand of leadership for the last seven years.

With the exception of Mary McCann, they were all serving on the board during the 2016 leadership crisis when Voris was forced to disclose to his Catholic audience that he had once lived a homosexual lifestyle.

During the 2016 crisis, Voris had worked out a deal with a major donor to stay off-camera and make E. Michael Jones the front man while Voris ran the behind-the-scenes operation. After giving the deal a weekend’s thought, Voris reneged, keeping himself front and center on camera.

The board members who remained on the board were, by default, supporting that decision. But what else could they do? They were employees and in a conflict of interest. Would they dare contradict Voris?

Based on Voris’s recent video post on Twitter, these same individuals have left the door open for him to return again, almost guaranteeing another leadership crisis at some point in the future. As long as there is the possibility Voris will return, it will be very difficult for those who remain to imagine and create a new future for the organization.

Other Concerns about the Current Board

It’s entirely possible the “official” board isn’t running the show. At the end of March, when Voris announced 30 percent of the staff was being laid off, a so-called “leadership team,” a shadow board, was meeting regularly to forge a path forward. That leadership team did not include, for example, Christine Niles. It may not have included Susan Vance either.

It is possible that a major decision – to lay off 30 percent of the staff – was never put up for a vote by the official board.

Christine Niles claims she knew nothing about the decision. She was out of the country but certainly was accessible via email and mobile phone. According to her account, she was never invited to vote on the decision.

It’s possible an unofficial but influential group of employees, possibly the “leadership team,” and not the board, forced Voris’ resignation.

Sources are telling Trust But Verify that a group of employee signators sent an official communication to the board detailing a series of problems and demanding Voris’ resignation. If true, then the board didn’t initiate the action to oust Voris, they did so only under pressure. It is simply not clear who is running the show at Church Militant.

Did the bylaws even permit such an action? If Church Militant had had a whistleblower policy, the list of concerns/grievances could have been investigated in a way that didn’t necessarily result in organizational implosion.

More than a year ago, Chief of Staff Simon Rafe told this reporter that CM didn’t need a whistleblower policy. After all, “If someone has a problem with me he can go to Michael; and if someone has a problem with Michael he can come to me,” Rafe said.

This is also the same board that approved a $50k unsecured loan to a private individual, Marc Balestrieri, the man Voris threatened with ruin just days before Balesttieri was to be deposed in the New Hampshire libel case. The plaintiff’s lawyers are calling the threats witness tampering.

If the board didn’t approve the loan, if Voris was issuing loans of that size on his own authority, that in itself would be grounds for his removal.

Non-profit board members have fiduciary responsibilities as well as a duty of care, responsibilities for which they can be held liable. Many nonprofits provide their board members with liability insurance to protect them from lawsuits. A five-figure personal loan to a private individuals using donors’ sacrificial gifts does not engender confidence in the board’s duty of care.

This is also the board that had to have approved using organizational funds to pursue a libel lawsuit against podcaster Mike Parrott. Regardless of the case’s merits, it was a huge distraction of the pick-your-battles variety.

And even though Church Militant won the case, many ugly actions were taken against the defendant, a fellow Catholic. It is also possible the case, though won, was a net loss financially for CM.

Finally, someone on the board is not able to maintain confidentiality. Hours before CM released its official statement about Voris’ resignation, LifeSite news was contacting former employees for comment. Likewise, Mike Parrott had posted a podcast on the topic hours before the press release.

Catholic podcaster Christine Harrington (Eternal Life Plan) says she was getting direct messages from prominent Catholic influencers about the possibility of Voris’ resignation as early as November 20.

This is not a group that understands the importance of keeping a confidence. Phone calls were flying all over the country. Is this the right group to handle another likely round of layoffs, an out-of-state lawsuit, and potential bankruptcy?

It’s possible the leak wasn’t loose lips but something as simple as someone carelessly leaving a draft of the press release on the community printer, but either way, the ship isn’t tight, except in unhealthy ways.

This is a board that laughingly called a holiday gathering a “board meeting” because most of the members were present on the occasion, that never issued an annual report, that, even now, is refusing to confirm who is a board member and who is not.

Some are saying the board acted “bravely” in its decision to ask for Voris’s resignation. Until the board is willing to answer questions about exactly what happened, it is impossible to know whether it acted bravely.

Again, except for Rivard, these individuals are employees; it must be assumed their primary interest is keeping their jobs as long as possible.

What Should Happen Next?

The current board should resign effective immediately and some sort of conservatorship arranged.

In their places, representatives from the Deposit of Faith Coalition, a group of like-minded Catholic organizations loosely affiliated with Church Militant, could occupy those seats, at least temporarily.  Michigan only requires a board of three members.

Since the current board members are all employees, except for Rivard, they would be readily available for consultation should the new board need their input.

By the end of February, CM will know the outcome of the libel case in New Hampshire. CM’s position is weak on a number of levels. It seems unlikely the organization will prevail at trial. Regardless, prudence demands the organization prepare for a worst case scenario.

Another round of layoffs is probably likely. CM is already looking for cash. It is selling one of its real estate assets, a clear indication the organization is not expecting to recover its former position in the Catholic media world.

Finally, an independent audit should be undertaken immediately. Whoever is governing the ship is going to need solid numbers, and the interplay of money between St. Michael’s Media (a 501(c)3), Church Militant (a 501(c)4), and the Deposit of Faith Coalition should be carefully reviewed -- again, independently.  

Meanwhile, a merger with another organization might be possible, BishopAccountability.org comes to mind. But that would probably necessitate a move to another city which might not be economically feasible.

It has taken seven years for the bad decisions of 2016 to play out. While many say Church Militant’s activities deepened their faith, others have pointed out that CM only existed because of the chaos in the Church and then leveraged the chaos for its own purposes.

For nearly everyone, there simply is no Church Militant without Michael Voris.

Prayer for Michael Voris:

Lamentations 3:19-26

Remember my affliction and my wanderings

        the wormwood and the gall.

My soul continually remembers it

        and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

        and therefore I have hope.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

        his mercies never come to an end.

they are new every morning;

        great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

        “therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for  him,

to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

        for the salvation of the Lord.