This creepy Catholic group spent $4 million to out gay priests on gay hookup apps

A conservative Catholic group in Colorado spent at least $4 million–yes, $4 million–to identify priests using gay hookup apps.

While the apps in question have said they now restrict user data to protect people against outing, the Catholic group swears it’s not anti-gay, it’s just interested in making sure that all priests practice celibacy.

The non-profit group Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal (CLRC)–which claims to “support the commitment of Roman Catholic clergy to living the teachings of the church”–purchased mobile app tracking data, collected between 2018 and 2021, from Growlr, Scruff, and Jack’d as well as OKCupid (a site for queer and straight users), The Washington Post recently reported.

CLRC then sent a report detailing the data (mostly taken from Grindr) to a local diocese, an area overseen by a Catholic bishop.

The report included when and where the apps were used — sometimes locating uses inside of parishes, rectories, and seminaries — as well as the user’s device, internet service provider, and other characteristics that could help slim down likely suspects.

The data didn’t prove any conversations or in-person meetings took place, and it’s unknown whether the data led to anyone’s quitting or being fired, the Post noted. It’s also unclear whether CLRC purchased this data from an individual, ad brokers, or data exchanges.

Nevertheless, the selling of this data is a largely unregulated “multibillion-dollar industry,” one expert told the publication.

The Post wrote of CLRC’s project, “[its] existence reflects a newly empowered American Catholic right-wing that sees enforcing its interpretation of church teaching on sexuality and gender as an existential issue for the church and that no longer trusts bishops to do so.”

One of the Post’s sources, who “spoke on the condition of anonymity because the project is not supposed to be public,” said that CLRC’s members disagreed on how to use the data.

Some wanted to out priests believed to have gay hookup apps on their phones; like what happened in July 2021 to Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill. Others have wanted to privately confront suspected priests and pressure them into early retirement or quietly use the data to prevent them from advancing in their religious careers.

Both of the anonymous sources who informed to the Post say they “disapprove of the project because they see it as spying and coercive in ways that are damaging to priest-bishop relations and to the reputation of the Catholic Church and thus its ability to evangelize. They also see the project as taking a simplistic approach to morality that they call un-Catholic.”

In an article criticizing the Post‘s reporting, CLRC’s President Jayd Henricks wrote, that his group “[explores] ways technology might serve the bishops in addressing their greatest challenges,” adding, “I’ve been proud to be a part of that group.”

“It’s not about straight or gay priests and seminarians,” he wrote of his group’s project. “It’s about behavior that harms everyone involved, at some level and in some way, and is a witness against the ministry of the Church.”

One of his group’s trustees, John Martin, made “major donations” to “campus evangelization, anti-abortion, anti-poverty and religious education” (all of which typically champion sex-negative and anti-LGBTQ+ views). Additionally, Martin made $555,000 in donations to CLCR.

CLCR is also represented by a law firm founded by Gene Schaerr, a Mormon who has called fighting same-sex marriage “a religious duty.” “Schaerr advises evangelical colleges on how to protect their government funding while upholding practices such as barring LGBTQ student clubs,” the Post reported.

Spokespersons for Grindr, Growlr, Jack’d, and Scruff all told the Post that they stopped sharing user location information with ad partners between 2018 and 2022 over concerns about the data’s possible misuse.

“We are infuriated by the actions of these anti-LGBTQ vigilantes,” Grindr spokesman Patrick Lenihan told the publication.” Grindr has and will continue to push the industry to keep bad actors out of the ad tech ecosystem, particularly on behalf of the LGBTQ community. All this group is doing is hurting people.”

It’s hardly surprising that religious zealots would spend millions to out gay priests — rather than, say, help the poor. Religious experts estimate that as many as one-third of priests may be gay, and the Catholic church is happy to blame gay priests for their out-of-control child sex abuse scandals (something that professional advocates for abuse survivors say is actually due to the church’s silence and protecting of offenders).

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about all this is that apps and websites regularly allow private groups to buy their commercial data and use it against specific individuals — something that may become more common in the future.

In the past “police departments have bought data about citizens instead of seeking a warrant, domestic abusers have accessed data about their victims, and antiabortion activists have used data to target people who visit clinics,” said Justin Sherman, a senior fellow at Duke University’s public policy school, who focuses on data privacy issues.

If CLCR’s project is any indication, well-financed anti-LGBTQ+ groups could start using this practice to target and silence and progressive voices that they deem “unchristian.”