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The Catholic Newspaper reported Tuesday that it had obtained cellphone data showing that one of the top Catholic priests in the U.S. used Grindr and frequented gay bars. Following the release of the report, the priest resigned from his state position.
Pillar said he reviewed materials collected from the mobile devices of Jeffrey Baril, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and concluded they showed he used gay dating apps and frequented gay bars between 2018 and 2020.
Pillar claimed it obtained data from a vendor that matched a numeric identifier on Baril’s mobile device, which the newsletter said Baril used consistently at his office and at home.
The Pillar said that while the app signal data does not identify usernames, it is correlated with unique numeric identifiers on mobile devices, and that the data is then aggregated and sold.
Representatives for Grindr did not respond to several phone and email messages seeking comment from the company on Wednesday. In a statement to The Washington Post on Tuesday, a Grindr spokesperson described The Pillar’s reporting as “homophobic” and disputed the newsletter’s explanation of how it obtained the data.
“The activities outlined in the unsourced blog post are technically impossible and highly unlikely to occur,” the statement said. “There is absolutely no evidence to support any allegations of improper data collection or use in connection with the Grindr app.”
Ashkan Soltani, a former chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, said that while there is no evidence that Baril’s data was obtained from Grindr, he hopes Baril’s case will help understand how consumers’ personal data can be so easily accessed in this vast, virtually unregulated tech “ecosystem.”
“This is a shadow industry that’s been around for quite some time,” Soltani told NBC News on Wednesday. “It’s a multi-billion dollar industry that’s profiting off this data and selling it for a profit.”
Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy and church teachings forbid any sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage.
In a statement on Tuesday, the conference said Bishop Baril “resigned with immediate effect” after authorities “became aware of impending media reports of possible inappropriate conduct by a priest.”
The statement said that although the allegations against Baril only concerned adults, he wanted to “avoid any disruption to the running of the conference or its ongoing work,” which led to his resignation.
The group said it “takes any allegations of misconduct seriously and will take all appropriate steps to address them.”
Barile, who lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin, could not immediately be reached for comment, and his listed cell phone number, landline number and email address were not working Wednesday.
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