A Catholic Group Spent Millions on Dating App Data to Out Gay Priests
A conservative Catholic group in Colorado bought mobile app tracking data worth millions of dollars in order to identify gay priests across the US.
According to a Washington Post investigation(Opens in a new window), the Denver-based Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal exclusively used commercially available information in its bid to track and locate gay priests. The data spans 2018 through 2021 and includes gay dating and hookup apps like Grindr, Scruff, Growlr, and Jack’d, as well as OkCupid. The Post found that most of the data appears to be from Grindr.
In its hunt for gay priests, the Catholic Laity purchased data from ad brokers that showed the type of device, its location, the device ID, and the internet service provider being used along with other identifiers. The group then cross-referenced the legally purchased data with church residences that house priests.
As the Post notes, the group’s aim is to explore ways technology can “empower the church to carry out its mission” by serving bishops “evidence-based resources” that they can use to check for weaknesses “in current formation practices and priestly life.” Putting its mission into practice meant the group sent bishops intel they had gathered on gay priests.
The Catholic Laity’s trustees are John Martin, who owns a large natural gas production company, Mark Bauman, a former entertainment company executive, and Tim Reichert, a founder of a consulting firm who attempted a run for Congress as a Republican last year. For its investigation, The Post obtained recordings of the groups’ meetings and reviewed leaked documents and public records.
The investigation also found that members of the Catholic Laity group were involved in the outing of a high-profile
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