Damien Fisher’s Biased and Inaccurate Journalism on Saint Benedict Center

Damien Fisher is a New Hampshire-based freelance reporter, who has a long history of maligning and misrepresenting Saint Benedict Center and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Two weeks ago, he contrived yet another opportunity to vilify our apostolate in the press.

This time, the platform for his biased journalism was the Catholic newspaper, Our Sunday Visitor, and its wire service, OSV News. The occasion was the decision by Church Militant to settle the defamation lawsuit brought against it by a diocesan official in New Hampshire, the Very Reverend Georges de Laire.

Saint Benedict Center is not a party to this still ongoing lawsuit, but was relevant to its context. The court case centers around statements about Father de Laire that were published by Church Militant in its coverage of a decree of precepts imposed upon us in January of 2019. The decree, which we respectfully assert was erroneously and unjustly imposed, was signed by Father de Laire, the Judicial Vicar and Vicar for Canonical Affairs of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire.

A canon lawyer who formerly provided us canonical services, Marc Balestrieri, was among the named defendants in the case.

Saint Benedict Center remains relevant to the story of the lawsuit. That we would be mentioned in media coverage of the case was expected. No one should cry foul when a journalist simply does his job. The standard practices of journalism, however, bore no relation to Damien Fisher’s latest attempt to demonize the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

On March 5, 2024, Our Sunday Visitor published a story by Fisher on the settlement reached by two of the parties in the de Laire v. Voris, et al., lawsuit entitled, “Church Militant to shut down as defamation saga concludes.”

Distributed by OSV News, the story was picked up by numerous diocesan newspapers around the country.

The Discredited FBI Memo on Catholics

After devoting no less than four paragraphs to criticism of Saint Benedict Center, Fisher made a gratuitous reference to an issue that was irrelevant and immaterial to the court case when he dredged up the infamous FBI memo on traditional Catholics — a document that has been both discredited and disavowed — saying we were “named” in it.

Using information from the corrupt and compromised Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the FBI memo, in an evidence-free assertion, absurdly attempted to link traditional Catholics to racial and ethnic violence. Saint Benedict Center was one of the groups listed in an appendix to the memo, provided, apparently, by the SPLC.

The document was retracted as soon as it was made public. It was repudiated and condemned by both the Attorney General of the United States and the Director of the FBI. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Everything in that memo was appalling,” while FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the Bureau employees responsible for it had been admonished and their salaries were possibly affected.

The memo was excoriated in a special report by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Moreover, sixteen United States Senators wrote to the FBI demanding an explanation for this abuse, while twenty state attorneys general called for an investigation of the memo.

Ironically, when writing for a conservative news website, Fisher reported on comments critical of the memo. When the memo could be used against Saint Benedict Center, however, that skepticism disappeared.

Seriously understating the case, Fisher described the memo as merely “withdrawn,” and then, in an apparent attempt to associate Saint Benedict Center with extremism in the minds of his readers, he went on to write: “The group has rejected the characterization associating it with violence.”

In the thirty-six years that we have lived here in Richmond, New Hampshire, the Brothers and Sisters of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have comported ourselves as peaceful and law-abiding citizens. For this reason, those with an ax to grind against us, like the SPLC and Damien Fisher, use innuendo and false claims rather than actual evidence of wrongdoing on our part.

SPLC: “A Lucrative Bunco Scheme…”

This is not the first time, however, that Damien Fisher has imputed legitimacy to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has been described as “a lucrative bunco scheme which monetizes left-wing paranoia by inciting fear of conservative Christians.”

On at least five occasions in the past, Fisher has reminded his readers that Saint Benedict Center is on the SPLC’s list of designated “hate groups,” which now includes such mainstream conservative organizations as the Family Research Council — the target of SPLC-inspired violence — the Liberty Counsel, the American Family Association, Moms for Liberty, and the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Traditional Catholic organizations denigrated as hate groups by the SPLC include The Fatima Crusader, The Remnant, Catholic Family News, Culture Wars and the Ruth Institute.

The calumnies visited upon Saint Benedict Center by the SPLC range from the implausible to the fantastic.

In one 2007 smear piece, SPLC sources claimed that the Brothers and Sisters in Richmond train in firearms and Tae Kwon Do, that they carry rifles with night vision scopes, and that automatic weapons fire is heard from the monastery grounds. Each and every one of these claims is a lie. Rising from the fantastic to the hysterical, one creative SPLC collaborator warned of “another Waco” in the green fields of Cheshire County.

The Libel of Anti-Semitism

One of the common denominators between Damien Fisher and the Southern Poverty Law Center is the libelous claim that Saint Benedict Center embraces anti-Semitism.

In his OSV article, Fisher accused our Founder, Father Leonard Feeney — without citing any sources — of “virulent anti-Semitism.” Fisher went on to write “…the New Hampshire Slaves taught a rigorist interpretation of Catholicism that condemned Jewish people as part of their adherence to Father Feeney’s personal interpretation of the doctrine “no salvation outside the Church.”

The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary do not condemn the Jewish people. As has been stated before,

The Center and the Slaves harbor no animus, racial, ethnic, sectarian, ideological or political against the Jewish community. Their only interest in the Jewish community is evangelical, which is the same charitable interest they have for all of those who are outside of the Catholic Faith.

As for Father Feeney, there is perhaps no priest in this country’s history who did more to bring Jewish Americans into the household of the Catholic Faith. Thirteen Jews came into the Church thanks to Father Feeney’s zeal and direct influence on them. Many others have come into the Church through the influence of his religious. As for Father Feeney’s “personal” interpretation of the doctrine of no salvation outside the church — namely, that the three magisterial definitions infallibly teaching it mean what they say — it was the same interpretation held by all Catholics, always and everywhere, until a host of modern “–isms” invaded the Church.

Defective Journalism on “Feeneyite Teachings”

In his March 5th OSV News article, Fisher claims,

The New Hampshire Slaves broke away from the main group, located in Still River, Massachusetts, in the 1980s during a dispute over an effort to end hostilities with the Church and gain recognition by toning down Feeneyite teachings.

The claim here is not accurate. In fact, it is so substantially wrong that it is a false narrative. These splits had everything to do with governance and prudential matters, and nothing at all to do with fidelity to Father Feeney’s teachings. My claim here is quite easily documented.

There are two communities of Slaves of the Immaculate Heart in Still River, Massachusetts. Saint Ann’s House, a house of Sisters, is a Private Association of the Faithful in the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction that includes Still River. These wonderful Sisters are also known as “the Sisters of Saint Benedict Center.”

Concerning them, there exists a letter, dated May 4, 1988, from Father Lawrence A. Deery, J.C.L., to Father John McCormack. Father (later Monsignor) Deery was the Judicial Vicar and the Vicar for Canonical Affairs for the Diocese of Worcester, and Father McCormack was then Secretary for Ministerial Personnel for the Archdiocese of Boston (later, as Bishop McCormack of Manchester, New Hampshire, he allowed us to have a priest here for Mass and Confessions). In that letter, Father Deery explained that the good Sisters, “in no manner abandoned Father Feeney’s teachings. Consequently the Sisters do a good deal more than keep the memory of Father Feeney. They now actively proclaim his teachings as they did before the regularization.” These Sisters publish a collection of talks given by Father Feeney, Not Made for This World.

This, of course, contradicts Damien Fisher’s false narrative.

The other community is, like our group here in New Hampshire, a “double community,” consisting of two separate houses of Brothers and Sisters joined as a single entity. They are a Public Association of the Faithful in the Diocese of Worcester. Among the myriad proofs I could give for this group’s fidelity to Father Feeney’s theological positions is a talk by that community’s Brother Matthew, M.I.C.M., of which I thought highly enough that I posted it on our website in January. This community also publishes a fine book by Brother Leonard Mary, M.I.C.M., The Church of Salvation, which defends the so-called “strict interpretation” of extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

This also contradicts Damien Fisher’s false narrative.

A History of Falsehoods

Since January of 2019, Damien Fisher, and his wife, Simcha Fisher — who is a Contributing Writer for the Jesuit magazine America — have produced twenty-two articles for various blogs, websites and publications, which have either castigated the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or referred to the Slaves, negatively, in the context of the Reverend Georges de Laire’s defamation lawsuit against Michael Voris, et al.

Damien can also be heard and seen on the podcast of a 2023 New Hampshire radio program mocking Saint Benedict Center.

In a February 26, 2019 article in the New Hampshire Union Leader, Fisher claimed that the Holy See censured Saint Benedict Center in 2009 for its alleged “anti-Semitic teachings.” This was a total fabrication without any foundation in reality. At no time in 2009, or at any other date, did the Holy See issue any censure, canonical or theological, or any other decree, statement, or warning pertaining to anything Saint Benedict Center has said, written, or caused to be published regarding Judaism or the Jewish people. Mr. Fisher’s assertion, manifesting a reckless disregard for the truth, is not befitting a Catholic journalist.

Colluding with an Interested Party

Damien Fisher also worked with a diocesan official to propagate a trumped-up scandal to smear the name of Saint Benedict Center and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In August, 2018, two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation visited the Center to look into a reported claim of “human trafficking” and “involuntary servitude” — an assertion that a postulant (a young lady in the initial stages of becoming a Sister) was being held in the convent against her will.

After speaking with the postulant for about twenty minutes, and ascertaining that she was here of her own free will, the FBI agents — who conducted themselves courteously and professionally — departed, and no more was heard from them regarding the issue.

Saint Benedict Center later learned, through a freedom of information request, that the source of the preposterous and unfounded accusation was a high ranking official of the Diocese of Manchester. At the same time, we also learned that the FBI closed its “assessment” of the false claim in October of 2018, having found no evidence of any crime.

Then, almost three months after the FBI closed their assessment, on January 8 of 2019, the Union Leader published a story by Damien Fisher entitled, “NH-based ‘only Catholics go to heaven’ group sanctioned by Church; aspiring nun allegedly held against her will.” Fisher dedicated five paragraphs of his story to this fabrication, his only source being the very same diocesan official who had telephoned the FBI.

Fisher repeated the fabricated tale in a second story in March of 2019. Then, in July of 2019, Fisher devoted three paragraphs in a third story to the now dated and obviously fraudulent allegation, adding, incorrectly, that not only the FBI, but the New Hampshire State Police had investigated the matter — a falsehood that he spent an entire paragraph narrating in detail, even referring to a fictitious “New Hampshire State Police report.”

All the while, he resorted to the pejorative term “compound” to describe the grounds of Saint Benedict Center, while referring to us as a “fringe group.” Such tactics are worthy of the SPLC.

We would later learn, through the discovery process in the above referenced court case, that Damien Fisher had a longstanding email relationship with the diocesan official who crafted the fraudulent FBI scandal. On at least one occasion, that official requested anonymity from Fisher in his coverage of Saint Benedict Center — specifically requesting that Fisher protect him as the source of official records that he leaked, unethically, from official Diocesan Archives.

After writing nine hostile articles about Saint Benedict Center in the Union Leader over a period of two and half years, Fisher left the newspaper in July of 2021. The exact circumstances of his departure are unknown to us.

Three articles by Damien Fisher on Michael Voris, which referenced Saint Benedict Center, and which appeared on his website, NHReporter.com, disappeared after Fisher took down the website — curiously — soon after the de Laire v. Voris lawsuit was filed.

A Substantive Conflict of Interest

In his reporting on the canonical dispute between the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Diocese of Manchester, Damien Fisher has had a substantive, and for most of his coverage, a previously undisclosed conflict of interest.

His wife, Simcha Fisher, is a regular columnist for Parable, the bimonthly magazine of the Diocese of Manchester. In other words, Damien Fisher, in covering Saint Benedict Center and the Manchester Diocese, has been writing about a dispute between two parties, one of which has a professional relationship with his spouse.

If a public employee had such an overt and unreported ethical conflict, he would expose himself to potential civil and criminal liabilities.

Simcha Fisher now makes occasional disclaimers on her blog about her relationship with the diocese, possibly because Saint Benedict Center has been contacting Damien Fisher’s editors to inform them of this ethical issue.

There was no such full disclosure, however, in the March 5th OSV News article by Fisher, which so derided Saint Benedict Center.

We are all sinners in need of the grace, mercy, and forgiveness that Jesus Christ came to extend to the human race, and we here at Saint Benedict Center bear no ill will to our detractor. As enjoined by Our Lord and His Church, we gladly forgive the man for these transgressions of truthfulness, justice, and other Christian, and even natural, virtues.

The fifth spiritual work of mercy, “to forgive offenses willingly,” is not permission for the offender to continue spreading falsehoods about the offended party. Nor does it, in this instance, prevent us from defending ourselves against Damien Fisher’s biased, inaccurate, and unethical journalism.

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