A look inside the Church Militant headquarters

Feb. 19--This report accompanies an in-depth story on Church Militant available here.

The "on-air" light is activated over a framed picture of Jesus Christ in the hallway outside Church Militant's main studio in Ferndale.

Below stage lights, surrounded by more than a dozen flashing TV screens and flanked by statues of a crucified Jesus and a life-size, sword-wielding St. Michael the Archangel, four panelists prepare to go live.

"We've been waiting for this moment, particularly, since the election began," Richard Ducayne, 19, a producer who moved from New York state after graduating from home school to work here, tells a Free Press reporter.

?Read more:How a right-wing Ferndale fringe group is building a multimedia empire

It's shortly after 8 p.m. Jan. 31, and President Donald Trump is announcing his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court as we watch from the control room.

A feed from the White House flashes on many of the screens, with Trump naming Neil Gorsuch as his pick. The Church Militant webcasts on Facebook, YouTube and the website go live to the studio.

Michael Voris, the founder and senior executive producer, dressed in a coat and tie, welcomes the audience. He describes Gorsuch, a federal appellate judge, as a "traditionalist who's ruled in favor of religious freedom and opposed assisted suicide."

Leading the discussion, Voris describes the selection process and how the "leftist media will pile on and paint the most horrible picture" of Gorsuch.

"Liberal democrats will go before microphones every day and night and cry and complain about how evil and horrible and rotten this man is, because he's a threat to the established order," Voris tells viewers. "Get used to hearing the expression 'out of the mainstream.' It's the famous cry that liberals use."

A camera mounted to a jib shoots from one of multiple angles capturing the panelists: Bradley Eli, who has two master's degrees in theology and was raised in Butte, Mont.; Voris, a Notre Dame graduate who holds a sacred theology baccalaureate and worked for major Detroit TV stations; Christine Niles, who was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and has degrees from Notre Dame Law School and Oxford University; and Simon Rafe, who is the executive producer of premium Church Militant content, according to their bios on the website.

Church Militant's audience is about 10 times bigger than it was five years ago, and Voris said its revenue -- from online subscriptions, donations, merchandise and an annual cruise trip -- is "well past seven digits." He said the "authentic" Catholic news website and social media presence draw about 1 million-1.5 million interactions per month. It's part of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Christian organization called St. Michael's Media.

From the control room to the five studios (one just for audio) and high-grade equipment, the operation rivals those of local TV news stations. During the webcast, graphics with names and faces ranging from Gorsuch to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and others are displayed, and a clip of a Fox News interview between Sean Hannity and Trump is played.

Ducayne said the news team researched about nine candidates to prepare for the event, ready to give a full report that night no matter the outcome. Roe v. Wade is a top issue, and there's discussion of Gorsuch's position.

"He has a very, very thin record on abortion," Voris said.

Later, he lays out red and blue cards to describe the leanings of each Supreme Court justice: blue cards for "liberals" and red cards for "conservatives." Gorsuch, expecting he is confirmed, is a red card, making the balance red four, blue five.

"The second person: Presume it's Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- you can't see her living for four more years on the court," Voris said (Ginsburg is 83). "When her seat goes away, this will be the battle of, like hell-fire."

Voris said the operation has grown from 2,500 square feet in 2006 to 6,500 square feet in 2012 to 10,000 square feet at present. In the largest studio, there are 20 screens.

Their milestones include popping up at the top of Google News searches. Two that were especially popular: "Clinton campaign linked to Satanic rituals" and "FBI to reopen criminal probe into Hillary Clinton private e-mail use."

In an upstairs office, there's a big bag of popcorn foam. There's also nun soap ($28 for four bars), Church Militant coffee mugs and books with titles such as "Manual for Spiritual Warfare" and "Fulton Sheen's Wartime Prayer Book." There are flat cardboard boxes, envelopes and DVD boxes for shipping merchandise purchased from the online Church Militant store.

"Every one of us are Catholics in good standing," Voris said.

There's a chapel with numerous statues and a relic of St. Luke the Evangelist, who is credited with writing the third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Bible. Ducayne said they have morning and evening prayers there.

Contact Robert Allen on Twitter @rallenMI or rallen@freepress.com.

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