Michael Voris

Voris attended the University of Notre Dame, and graduated in 1983 with a degree in communications with a focus on history and politics. Between 1983 and 1986 he was a television anchor, producer and reporter for various CBS affiliates in New York, Albany, Duluth and Cheyenne, Wyoming.[2] In 1989 he became a news reporter and producer for a Fox affiliate in Detroit, where he won four Emmy Awards for production between 1992 and 1996.[2]

In 1997 he began operation of an independent television production company called Concept Communications, LLC. This company was registered by co-owners Gary Michael Voris and John Fitzpatrick Mola with the State of Michigan on July 8, 1997.[3]

Voris has confessed that "for most of my years in my thirties, confused about my own sexuality, I lived a life of live-in relationships with homosexual men. From the outside, I lived the lifestyle and contributed to scandal in addition to the sexual sins. On the inside, I was deeply conflicted about all of it.... Since my reversion, I abhor all these sins...."[4]

Voris cites the death of his brother from a heart attack in 2003, followed by his mother dying from stomach cancer in 2004 as the events that moved him from being "a lukewarm Catholic, someone who usually just went through the motions at church" to an "aggressive global advocate for conservative Catholics ... on a burning mission to save Catholicism and America by trying to warn the public about what he sees as a decline of morality in society."[5]

Voris is reported to work "up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week" on creating presentations for St. Michael's Media.[5]

In 2009, Voris received an STB degree from the Angelicum in Rome via Sacred Heart Major Seminary, graduating magna cum laude.[6]

Voris's comments questioning the validity of Rabbinical Judaism were later cited when he attempted to give a presentation in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania.[9] In April 2011, Voris, who had intended to give a talk entitled "Living Catholicism Radically",[9] was banned from speaking at Marywood University or any facilities owned by the Diocese.[5] This action was taken after complaints were made about Voris's statements about other religions.[5] In a letter to the talk's organizers, Paul and Kristen Ciaccia, the Diocese declared that it had "learned from" the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Mr. Voris's home Archdiocese of Detroit that Voris's presentations had caused "'a number of controversies' and that his programs are not endorsed by his home archdiocese."[9]

Using a press release issued by the Archdiocese of Detroit, the Catholic Diocese of Scranton issued a statement in response to a planned speaking engagement of Voris in that diocese, saying that, "Although the Diocese shares Mr. Voris’ support of efforts to protect human life, his extreme positions on other faiths are not appropriate and therefore the Diocese cannot host him."[10]

Voris ascribed this decision to "political correctness. Anything somebody takes offense at, whether it's true or not, seems to be out of bounds."[5] The speech was moved to the Best Western Genetti Hotel and Conference Center in Wilkes-Barre, and the talk's organizers invited local bishop Joseph Bambera to attend "to evaluate Mr. Voris' knowledge of the faith, free from opinions formed by others."[9] The bishop did not take up the offer. The Ciaccias said the ban "belies deeper inconsistencies in diocesan policy."[9] Voris spoke about the events in a video segment, noting the diocese allowed Sara Bendoraitis, the director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Resource Center at American University, to speak at the University of Scranton the previous spring.[9]