Press Release: Benedictine Sisters subject of fraudulent claims

A number of concerned persons in various states have alerted the Benedictine Sisters of Erie to a new post on X that claims 53 voters are registered at the monastery’s address and “NO ONE lives there.” The poster, Cliff Maloney of PA CHASE, claims “Our attorney’s [sic] are reviewing this right now. We will not let the Dems count on illegal votes.”

According to a March 2024 post from the Lincoln Institute, “The ‘PA Chase’ is an effort led by Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania (CAP) to knock on 500,000 doors and raise the GOP mail-in ballot statewide total from 20% to 33%.” Cliff Maloney is listed as the CEO of Citizens Alliance.

The Benedictine Sisters take no issue with knocking on doors to increase citizen participation in elections. We do take issue with claiming false information as true in an effort to discredit differing views or affiliations.

“We want to call Cliff Maloney to account for his blatantly false post that accuses our sisters of fraud. We do live at Mount Saint Benedict Monastery and a simple web search would alert him to our active presence in a number of ministries in Erie. We also want to alert those who subscribe to X and other social media platforms to be vigilant and seek additional information before accepting these posts as truth,” said Sister Stephanie Schmidt, prioress. “A free republic depends on free and fair elections. It depends equally on a discerning and conscientious citizenry who do not unquestioningly accept the word of anyone who has a social media platform.”