Chicago City Wire

The Chicago archdiocese's decision last year to hire a liberal-minded editor to run a Catholic magazine was yet another visible sign of a hard push to the left by the Church in the U.S., an executive at Church Militant said during a recent interview.

"This constant push by the Church establishment in the United States, meaning the archbishops of various archdioceses, is both disturbing and insulting to ordinary Catholics," Church Militant Senior Executive Producer Michael Voris told the Chicago City Wire. "It shows a willingness to re-fashion the Church after a 1970s liberal model which has brought so much destruction to the faith lives of so many millions of Catholics and their families."

Voris made his comments concerning the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago's director of publications and media, Grant Gallicho, who was hired by the diocese in September of 2015. Church Militant was one of the few media outlets to cover Gallicho's hiring at the time and was decidedly critical.

Church Militant Senior Executive Producer Michael Voris | Photo courtesy of Church Militant

Gallicho, an associate editor of Commonweal who grew up on Chicago's northwest side, took over the then-newly created position, which includes oversight of the archdiocese's print and digital publications, including a Spanish-language newspaper. "This is my home church," Gallicho was quoted as saying in the National Catholic Reporter last January. "I love Chicago and am indebted to the Chicago church."

Gallicho is not the only liberal-minded communications specialist to find a place at the archdiocese. Jenna Rummelhart, a former marketing aide for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, recently accepted a senior communications coordinator position with the Chicago Archdiocese. Rummelhart’s role covers public communications on behalf of the archdiocese, including issuing press releases and leading local, national and international communications initiatives, according to her LinkedIn page. Rummelhart is a 2012 graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago was established as a diocese in 1843 and as an archdiocese in 1880, according to its own LinkedIn page. It serves more than 2.3 million Catholics in Cook and Lake Counties in Northeastern Illinois, a geographic area of 1,411 square miles. The archdiocese is divided into six vicariates and 31 deaneries, headed by Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago Blase Joseph Cupich, who is assisted by six episcopal vicars, each responsible for a vicariate, or region.

"Grant Gallicho comes from a background of liberal phony Catholicism -- an inauthentic expression of the faith rooted neither in correct reason nor tradition," Voris said. "Of course, the same could be said of his boss, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, whose careful wordsmithing and equivocation of the faith poses a constant danger to souls."

Cupich has been Archbishop of Chicago since 2014 and became a Cardinal last month.

"He behaves and speaks like a politician, so it could come as no surprise to see him surround himself with those who share his same phony version of Catholicism," Voris said. "It is sad for Mr. Gallicho that he is willing to hand his soul over to be instrumentalized by a cardinal, out of step with the history of the Church, for the advancement of a fraudulent version of the Faith. I cannot speak specifically to his duties, but whatever the day to day of his job may be, it will not serve the glory of Holy Mother Church, but rather undermine Her by promoting the inauthentic version of Catholicism promoted by his boss."