If anyone thinks that the upper echelons of the Catholic Church learned anything from the clergy sex abuse scandal, and/or implemented true, effective reforms that would prevent such scandals from recurring . . . think again.
Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, former general secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference, announced his resignation Tuesday, after The Pillar found evidence the priest engaged in serial sexual misconduct, while he held a critical oversight role in the Catholic Church’s response to the recent spate of sexual abuse and misconduct scandals.
. . .
Burrill was elected general secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference in November 2020. In that role, Burrill was effectively the highest-ranking American cleric who is not a bishop.
A priest of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, he began to work at the bishops’ conference as associate general secretary in February 2016. In that capacity, the priest was charged with helping to coordinate the U.S. bishops’ response to the Church’s 2018 sexual abuse and coercion scandals.
But an analysis of app data signals correlated to Burrill’s mobile device shows the priest also visited gay bars and private residences while using a location-based hookup app in numerous cities from 2018 to 2020, even while traveling on assignment for the U.S. bishops’ conference.
According to commercially available records of app signal data obtained by The Pillar, a mobile device correlated to Burrill emitted app data signals from the location-based hookup app Grindr on a near-daily basis during parts of 2018, 2019, and 2020 — at both his USCCB office and his USCCB-owned residence, as well as during USCCB meetings and events in other cities.
There’s more at the link.
I’m truly sad for the many faithful Catholics who’ve been hoping against hope that their bishops and the rest of the Church hierarchy had made serious efforts at reform. I’m here to tell you, they haven’t. It’s all been pious window-dressing. Since my own experience with such corruption in the Church, it’s done – and will doubtless continue to do – nothing whatsoever to address the root of the problem: namely, that the wrong men were allowed to enter the priesthood, and then promoted to positions of authority and power, where they could corrupt everything and everyone around them. Far too many such men are still in positions where they can (and do) effectively ignore measures designed to rein in their evil ways.
I fear greatly for the souls of such men. I do not believe God will allow himself to be mocked like this, and I do not believe those who’ve done so will escape the consequences of their actions. That they could act like this while using the Church, the Body of Christ, as a cloak and a shield for their evil . . . that’s likely to attract a Judgment that I really don’t want to see or hear.
May Almighty God have mercy on us all. We’re going to need it.
Peter
My guess is Grindr sells location based data to advertisers, including a unique identifier. And some organization collects this data and creates a history. And then sells the data. Or perhaps Grindr even sells the data history, “anonymized” to data brokers.
Somehow Pillar Catholic knew who / where to target.
Hmm…
I wonder if there are others in the Catholic Hierarchy they did this too?
Will there be more outings?
Why was this person targeted?
My son spent two years in seminary at Mount St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, MD. The lengths the Church – at least in my diocese and in the Mount – to identify and exclude homosexuals from priestly formation is extraordinary to say the least. The infiltration is deep, way deep, and will take a long time to cleanse from the bottom up and hopefully – after the current Pope is white smoke from the Sistine – top down, but we know who wins in the end. Matt 16:18…..
Sigh, they just don't get it!
from an old (very) straight (very) Jew
hanging with my Italian and Irish friends (two different groups) I remember them learning: "Hate the sin, not the sinner."
I'm still invited to (and attend) the occasional mass but The Church is not the church of the early/mid-fifties: to my eye, it's changed quite a bit.
(I can still remember standing in awe at the glory of the Tridentine Mass)
For the better or worse? It's not for me to say; I'm not a Catholic.
The other really bad part that might be overlooked…..
"According to commercially available records of app signal data"
The question is is it data FROM the app Grindr or some other. For instance the app SIGNAL which is supposed to be somewhat secure this is actually kind of important to know.
I think it goes deeper than sex. I understand that instead of excommunicating Biden because of his abortion stance apparently some one in power wrote a letter that abortion is more acceptable in the new age. I realize that the mid evil church looked aside at “women’s business” until quickening but we know better now!
This Ars technica article has a pretty good write up on how, in general terms, they identified him.
Your cell phone is in fact a tracking device. Your carrier will sell that data and will give it to Law Enforcement Agencies if requested to.
Thanks for the link. I trust Ars enough to believe their account and I know from experience they know what they are talking about on technical subjects.
Thanks Francis!
It seems you can buy data on what smartphone app is being used in an area that includes a unique identifier.
You can then use this unique identifier to track the phone when using that app.
The data may come from the internet provider (my guess), or from Grindr itself. And the data is sold to a data broker. That then a marketing firm can buy from.
The way around this my guess is using a vpn, except if the data is being provided by Grindr itself.
So all an enterprising reporter would need to do is buy this data for locations that Catholic Officials live, work, and any conferences / meetings out of town.
The real pandemic is institutional rot. It has set in everywhere and infected the centers of power and influence; the media, academia, the state, the Church. While the rest of us were busy being human, the degenerate left infiltrated and took over. Gramsci's long march through the institutions is now complete. Like a blind pig finding a truffle, Marx accurately predicted that the only question now is, "What Is To Be Done."
Until pedophiles are publicly executed pedophilia will continue.
"I think it goes deeper than sex."
I don't.
There's little doubt in my mind that mandatory celibacy contributed to the rampant sexual deviancy amongst Catholic clergymen. Repressed sexuality has a way of congealing into really bad things.
Maniac,
How does your theory jibe with the fact that you never hear of Catholic priests abusing young girls? If 1 to 3% of the population is inherently homosexual (stipulate for the sake of argument) shouldn't 97% of the abuse cases we hear involve young girls?
Also, could someone from the Catholic church perhaps comment on the number of priests who have affairs with adult women? I know this wouldn't be newsworthy since no one outside the Church would care but if the problem is celibacy then this should also be rampant.
Those cases happen, and get reported, but you're right – MUCH less than I would expect for a population with a standard distribution…
"There's little doubt in my mind that mandatory celibacy contributed.."
That would certainly explain Pastor Ted Haggard of New Life in Colorado Springs, whose loyal, attractive, and devout/devoted wife stood by him after his years of homosexual assignations became public. Plus about two dozen others I could come up with off the top of my head.
Yep..why did no one else think of this before you?
It's a good reason to NOT use apps as much as possible.
I only use apps when I need features I can't do through a webpage. Many times I don't use a service unless I really need it.
Oh, and turn location OFF unless you need it! Tower location data is MUCH less accurate than GPS.