National story about Catholic morality and data privacy circles back to Denver
Plus, a Westboro Baptist "vacation" in Arvada and a Masterpiece Cakeshop lookalike
After a Catholic publication outed a gay priest using data from a phone app, a debate has erupted in Catholic and non-Catholic circles alike and drawn news coverage from outlets across the country. But it starts in Denver … three years ago.
At a Denver café in 2018, Alejandro Bermudez, executive director of Catholic News Agency, an Alabama-based outlet with an office in Denver, met with an unnamed source who offered a trove of data that would expose clergy who were having gay sex. The person wanted to provide the information, “in the hopes that they (Catholic Church leaders) would discipline or remove those found,” Bermudez wrote in a July 19 post.
Though Bermudez turned down the offer, a story with uncanny similarities popped up three years later. Not by Catholic News Agency, but The Pillar, a seventh-month old publication on Substack founded by former Catholic News Agency journalists JD Flynn and Ed Condon. Bermudez wrote that July 19 article a day before The Pillar’s story, warning that something was coming.
The Pillar’s story was about Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill, now-former general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, going to gay bars and using the hookup app Grindr. Flynn, who lives in Denver, and Condon, who is in Washington D.C., learned of Burrill’s activity through commercially available data they obtained that included location history from Grindr.
Burrill resigned from his post before The Pillar published its story on July 20, after Flynn and Condon reached out for comment. Since running the Burrill story, The Pillar has published two other stories of a similar nature. Flynn and Condon didn’t find evidence of child sexual abuse; they were calling out priests for engaging in behavior that differs from Catholic teachings.
After The Pillar’s first story ran, Slate wrote about the potential ways that Flynn and Condon obtained the Grindr data. One way is through a data broker, which could have purchased the data from a third-party company that runs ads on Grindr. The Washington Post reported that a source approached Flynn and Condon with the dataset a few months ago, although it’s unclear if it was the same person who approached Bermudez in 2018.
National Catholic Reporter national correspondent Christopher White went at The Pillar controversy with a different angle by investigating Condon and Flynn, a story with all kinds of Denver connections. One example is Flynn’s close ties with the Archdiocese of Denver’s former archbishop, Charles Chaput, and its current one, Samuel Aquila, who are both considered culturally conservative. Flynn worked for the Archdiocese of Denver from 2007-13.
White references an old article that Flynn wrote for Catholic News Agency about a meeting between Pope Francis and U.S. bishops, which Aquila attended. Flynn's story said that the pope made negative comments about a well-known advocate for LGBTQ Catholics, Fr. James Martin, in a controversial section of the article that would later be disputed by other bishops who attended the meeting.
White also notes Condon’s ties with the Fr. Giovanni Capucci, Judicial Vicar of the Archdiocese of Denver, who are both members of a controversial movement in Catholicism called the Neocatechumenal Way.
Needless to say, Flynn and Condon’s work attracted a lot of attention, and not just toward their reporting on gay priests. Flynn issued a statement on Twitter about the controversy. In it he said, “In differing sets of circumstances, the weighing exercise about privacy and legitimate public interest has to be conducted according to the particular factors at hand, with scrupulous regard both for the truth, and for respect and fairness to the individuals involved.”
The Westboro Baptist Church visits Arvada
Over 150 members of the “Parasol Patrol” arrived at Arvada United Methodist Church on Sunday to shield parishioners from about 12 Westboro Baptist Church members who were there to picket the church over its LGBTQ-inclusive stance, which a Westboro member blamed for a June shooting incident in Olde Town Arvada that claimed the lives of two people. (Though as the Arvada Press notes in an Onion-worthy aside, the group also was in the area for a vacation. “We’re here simultaneously as a break, as a vacation,” Isaiah Phelps-Roper told the paper. “But we have an obligation to warn our neighbors that their sins are taking them to Hell.”)
According to the article, the Parasol Patrol is an LGBTQ advocacy group that arrives at homophobic and transphobic protests with rainbow umbrellas. “The highest compliment we can get from a parent is when they say, ‘Our kids didn’t even know protesters were there at all,’” co-founder Pasha Eve told the Press’ Ryan Dunn. The WBC also planned to picket two other churches in the city, according to the Press, one of which Parasol Patrol didn’t hear back from after reaching out and another which asked the group not to come. Arvada UMC didn’t appear phased. “It means that we’re doing something right,” Dr. Amy Gearhart, AUMC’s lead pastor, told the paper.
303 Creative LLC v. Elenis
Colorado is once again at the center of another court case seeking to define the boundaries of religious freedom — and just like the last time, it centers around gay marriage. On Monday, the federal appeals court in Denver ruled against website and graphic designer Lorie Smith, who argued that she had the right not to make wedding websites for same-sex couples because of her Christian beliefs. The three-judge appellate panel found that this put her in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. As an article about the case in the Associated Press noted, this is the same law that was at issue in the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission case. Like that case, it’s possible Smith will now go to the Supreme Court.
“I believe that this case, or one similar to it, is likely to end up before the Supreme Court at some point in the future, but the Court doesn’t seem anxious to rule on these types of cases anytime soon,” civil rights attorney Iris Halpern told Colorado Politics.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips in 2018, but it was a narrow ruling that did not make a blanket statement about whether religious objections could be used to deny service to LGBTQ customers.
Briefly noted
The body of deceased Love Has Won cult leader Amy Carlson has been identified through DNA testing, according to the Denver Post, but it’s still unclear how she died. (Carlson was also mentioned in this recent New Yorker article about what makes a cult a cult.)
The Colorado Springs Gazette’s most recent 150th anniversary article takes a look at how the city stood up to the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, which targeted Black, Jewish and Catholic Coloradans.
The Colorado Sun published an excerpt from Julian Rubenstein’s book The Holly about Terrance Roberts, who formed the anti-gang organization Prodigal Son Initiative after a stint in prison.
The New York Times included a photo from the Denver Post of Lhoppön Rinpoche leading a meditation over Facebook live in a fascinating article about Facebook seeking to create partnerships with religious organizations.
“Have Faith, Colorado” is a weekly roundup and analysis of local religion articles in the Centennial State. It’s by Liam Adams and Carina Julig. Liam covers local news for Colorado Community Media and religion news as a freelancer. Carina covers education and other Aurora news at the Sentinel Colorado. To connect with us about the newsletter please email liamadams.journalism@gmail.com and carina.julig@colorado.edu, and follow us on twitter at @liamsadams and @CarinaJulig.