Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, who resigned from his position as general secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after the gay dating app Grindr allegedly provided data to third parties, has filed a lawsuit accusing the app of privacy violations and deception.
According to legal news outlet the Daily Journal, Msgr. Burrill’s lawyers filed the lawsuit on his behalf in Los Angeles County Superior Court on July 18.
The lawsuit alleges that Grindr sold Msgr. Burrill’s personal data, including information about Msgr. Burrill’s location, after misleadingly advertising that the app would not do so. The lawsuit also alleges that Grindr concealed from Msgr. Burrill that the personal data could be used to identify him.
Andrew Friedman and Gregory Helmer of Friedman LLP, and James Carr are representing Msgr. Burrill in the suit.
According to the Daily Journal, Grindr issued a statement expressing that the company intends to “vigorously” respond to the lawsuit’s allegations.
In July 2021, the Pillar published an investigative report allegedly using Grindr data to accuse Msgr. Burrill of sexual misconduct in 2021. The Pillar did not state where it received the data from.
Before publishing the report, The Pillar claims it presented the data to the USCCB. Just a day before the report was published, Msgr. Burrill resigned from his position as general secretary of the USCCB, which he had held since November 2020, and withdrew from public ministry. He was reinstated to ministry in the diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, in June 2022.
The Pillar’s 2021 publication on the scandal sparked a debate not only within the Catholic Church but also in secular media circles about the use of private data.
The Atlantic ran an article on the issue in August 2021, highlighting questions around invasions of privacy and journalistic ethics. The Washington Post published an article in July 2021 highlighting various responses to the story, with one accusing The Pillar of “McCarthyism,” and others more understanding of the Pillar’s decision to publish the story.
According to the Post, Grindr has previously faced penalties over sharing private information. In January 2021, Norwegian officials fined Grindr more than $11 million for sharing user information with advertising companies.
After the Pillar’s report was published, the Post also reported that “Grindr… initially denied it was even possible for such data to become public, saying in a statement that the incident [regarding Msgr. Burrill] was ‘infeasible from a technical standpoint and incredibly unlikely to occur.’”
According to the Post, Grindr later updated its statement regarding the Pillar’s publication about Msgr. Burrill, stating: “We do not believe Grindr is the source of the data,” and the Post noted that Grindr also “claimed the ‘pieces simply do not add up.’”
The Roman Catholic Church is postponing its debate on deaconesses even as the Eastern Orthodox Church ordained its first female deacon to serve in the liturgy, in anticipation of more women to be ordained to the diaconate.
In a historic event, Metropolitan Serafim Kykotis, archbishop of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all of Africa, ordained Angelic Molen at the St. Nektarios Mission Parish near Harare, Zimbabwe, on Holy Thursday during the Orthodox Holy Week on May 2.
Eastern Orthodox Pope Authorizes Ordination
Molen’s ordination, authorized by His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, has triggered reactions ranging from hostile to affirming in the Eastern Orthodox churches — especially as her role, according to Serafim, “will include assisting priests in the liturgy and sacraments.”
“The Alexandrian Patriarchate in Africa felt the need to revive this order to serve the daily pastoral needs of Orthodox Christians in Africa,” states a press release from the St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess, revealing that “this historic event would not be possible without the approval and support of the Alexandrian Synod and His Beatitude Theodoros.”
After unanimously voting to revive the female diaconate at its synod in Alexandria in 2016, the patriarchate ordained five sub-deaconesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2017.
“The ordination of Deaconess Angelic was the culmination of efforts around the world to renew the ancient order of deaconesses in the Orthodox Church, and specifically for the unique needs of parishes in Africa,” the statement added, explaining that Molen was ordained in the Byzantine rite.
Catalyst for Deaconesses in the Catholic Church?
Sources in Rome told The Stream that Molen’s ordination could spark debate on ordaining deaconesses in the Roman Catholic Church during the second phase of the October Synod of Bishops.
However, at a press conference on Tuesday the Vatican announced that the discussion on deaconesses “will not be the subject of the work of the Second Session” of the Synod.
The Instrumentum laboris (working document) released to the media stated that “the fruits of Study Group 5” (which dealt specifically with deaconesses), will “take into consideration the results of the two Commissions that have dealt with the question in the past.”
“While some local Churches call for women to be admitted to the diaconal ministry, others reiterate their opposition,” the document explained.
“The restoration of the tradition of ordaining women to the diaconate in the Greek Orthodox Church in Zimbabwe gives great support to those Roman Catholics who wish the tradition to continue in the West, where it has been largely abandoned for some 800 years,” Prof. Phyllis Zagano told The Stream.
Zagano holds a research position at Hofstra University, is regarded as a world authority on female deacons, and is author most recently of Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women. In 2016, Pope Francis appointed her to serve on the Vatican commission to study female deacons.
“The question of restoring women to the ordained diaconate is before the Synod on Synodality, and one can only hope the process within Catholicism, and the Orthodox return to Tradition, will be respected,” she confirmed to the National Catholic Reporter.
“There is no Catholic doctrine against ordaining women as deacons,” Zagano told The Stream.
Orthodox Christians React with Support and Hostility
Molen’s ordination has triggered a heated debate within the Eastern Orthodox Churches between those who oppose women’s diaconate as a rupture with tradition and those who support it as a revival of an ancient practice that existed in the early days of the Church.
“The event caused many reactions, and gave rise to the free expression of various opinions and approaches,” Metropolitan Serafim wrote in a May 11 statement.
“The mission in Africa needs deaconesses, mainly for pastoral work and for the baptisms of adult women, as well as in special cases, such as widowhood, in stricter male-dominated environments, where for a long time the widowed woman is cut off from social and church life,” he explained.
Archdeacon Job Serebrov, an expert on the liturgies in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, told The Stream that it’s hard to predict whether other Greek Orthodox Churches will follow suit,
There appears to be stiff resistance on the part of the Slavic Orthodox Churches to do so,” he said. “The main concern that has been raised is that ordaining deaconesses will lead to female priests. This fear has arisen from the misplaced notion that the diaconate is only a stepping stone to the priesthood, which has only been reinforced in Eastern Orthodox seminaries and by current practice.
“Within the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches only the Armenian Orthodox Church has also ordained liturgically serving deaconesses. However, until 2017, when a lay woman was ordained, that office was reserved for nuns,” he added. “With proper education about the diaconate, ordination of deaconesses can be a great benefit to the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, especially when viewed in its correct perspective as filling a church need instead of correcting an imbalance in gender equality.”
Pope Francis Sends Mixed Signals on Female Deacons
In April 2020, Pope Francis appointed a new commission tasked with investigating the possibility of ordaining female deacons. Among the 10 theologians on the commission are two permanent deacons, three priests, and five lay women — all holding professorships at theological faculties.
Seven of the commission members hold the Church’s traditional position on reserving sacramental ordination to the diaconate and priesthood exclusively for men.
One of the most prominent scholars on the commission who has categorically concluded that women cannot be ordained deacons is Fr. Manfred Hauke, professor of patristics and dogmatics at the Theological Faculty of Lugano, Switzerland.
“Allowing women to be deacons would create great confusion for the faithful,” Fr. Hauke maintains. “You would have to explain to people the difference between male and female deacons.”
Moreover, calling women “deacons” would be “ambiguous” since they would not receive the sacrament of Holy Orders, he said.
Dr. Rosalba Manes, professor of biblical theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, argues in favor of Phoebe as “deacon of the church of Cenchrea,” explaining that the term diákonos suggests Phoebe’s ministry is not limited only to “the sphere of charity, but that it also includes preaching and evangelization.”
However, in a May 2024 CBS interview, Pope Francis ruled out ordaining female deacons. “But women have always had, I would say, the function of deaconesses without being deacons, right?” he said. “Women are of great service as women, not as ministers […] within the Holy Orders.”
A prominent and prolific theologian in the Church of the Nazarene will face a church trial later this month for advocating for LGBTQ affirmation at a time when the denomination is doubling down on its opposition to same-sex relations.
The Rev. Thomas Jay Oord, an ordained elder and a lifelong member of the denomination, is accused of teaching doctrines contrary to the Church of the Nazarene. He is also being charged with conduct unbecoming of a minister for his efforts to move the denomination to affirm LGBTQ people. The church holds that “the practice of same-sex sexual intimacy is contrary to God’s will.”
If found guilty, Oord could lose his preaching credentials or possibly even his church membership. His trial will take place in Boise, Idaho, on July 25.
The trial follows last year’s guilty verdict against a San Diego Nazarene minister who published an essay in a book co-edited by Oord, titled “Why the Church of the Nazarene Should Be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming” arguing that the church should have more dialogue on LGBTQ issues.
That minister, the Rev. Selden Kelley, who pastored San Diego’s First Church of the Nazarene, was stripped of his credentials and can no longer pastor a church or hold any position of leadership within the Church of the Nazarene.
Oord, who in 2015 was pushed out of his job at Northwest Nazarene University for his progressive views more generally, said the church tried to gag him into keeping silent about his upcoming trial. He has decided to speak publicly about it anyway. Two weeks ago he published a book called “My Defense: Responding to Charges that I Fully Affirm LGBTQ+ People.”
Church of the Nazarene headquarters in Lenexa, Kan.
“I’m convinced that I won’t get fair treatment going through the trial process,” Oord said. “And I want most of all to make a defense based on theology, not based on the legal nuances of the denomination’s manual.”
Oord has written widely that love is the center of what it means to follow Jesus and that love lies at the heart of holiness. Holiness is a critical doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene, which was formed out of the 19th-century Wesleyan-Holiness movement.
The 2.5 million-member global denomination is theologically conservative and has seen more growth overseas. It is declining in the U.S., where it has about 500,000 members in 4,600 churches.
The Rev. Scott Shaw, the district superintendent of the Intermountain District Church of the Nazarene who brought the charges against Oord, declined to comment on trial.
The church, which is governed by six elected general superintendents, last year put out a statement that the church’s positions on human sexuality, along with other positions on Christian character and conduct found in its manual or rulebook, were essentially doctrine.
This tightening of a church’s social policies and elevating them to the status of doctrine has also characterized recent moves in the Christian Reformed Church. The United Methodist Church, to which the Church of the Nazarene is more theologically akin (both trace their origin to John Wesley), underwent a major split over LGBTQ inclusion, losing 25% of its U.S. churches and more recently all its churches in the Ivory Coast of Africa. At its most recent conference, the church voted to repeal the denomination’s condemnation of homosexuality from its rulebook and allow LGBTQ people to be ordained and ministers in the denomination to marry same-sex couples.
An entrance to Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.
Oord said he became “queer affirming” in the early 1990s and spent the next few decades helping queer students at Eastern Nazarene College and later at Northwest Nazarene University feel embraced and loved. He now directs doctor of ministry students at Northwind Theological Seminary, an online-only school. His daughter, Alexa, with whom he co-edited “Why the Church of the Nazarene Should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming,” is bisexual.
Oord said he believes the majority of scholars in the Nazarene affiliated universities and seminaries are LGBTQ affirming but won’t say so publicly because they fear for their jobs. One of them, K. Steve McCormick, a professor emeritus at Nazarene Theological Seminary, is expected to testify on Oord’s behalf at the trial.
Last year, a dean at Point Loma Nazarene University, Mark Maddix, was fired for siding with a colleague who lost her job, also for siding with LGBTQ rights.
Church trials are a recent phenomenon in the denomination, said Ron Benefiel, an academic and a minister in the denomination. He said he anticipated that if Oord is found guilty there will be an appeal.
Oord said he is speaking out, against the guidance of the church, because he wants to encourage queer people and their allies and because he wants to make a theological case for LGBTQ inclusion.
“I really want to see the denomination live up to the calling of love that it claims that we’re trying to pursue,” Oord said. “It’s my belief that love requires people who are trying to be followers of Jesus to be fully affirming of queer people.”
— I post on Facebook in support during pride month and all year long
Where would this world be without the gifted and talented members of the LGBTQ community who bring such beautiful gifts to our lives?
By Rev. Richard Ryan, Sellersburg, Indiana.
I frequently get comments asking me how and why I support PRIDE as a retired clergy and person of deep faith.
I share for my children, some whom identify as LGBTQ-plus, and I love them deeply. I post my support on social media for my LGBTQ niece, multiple cousins and my close personal friends. I post for the child in the pew who is horrified and filled with terror the first time they hear the pastor say they’re going to burn hell for something they can’t change. I share for the many talented church musicians I’ve known whose God given gifts were tossed aside when it was found that they loved someone of the same sex. I share for my friend’s son who was told after years of serving, that could no longer work with with the youth at church because he was gay. For the youth (and adults) of the church I served in Corydon, Indiana who were gay and two who were transgender, who suffered in silence.
I post for the woman who left my sales team because of my LGBTQ support, who shared that reason with the company president, not knowing the company president had a gay son. I post for my LGBTQ team leaders at work who are without a doubt the kindest and best of the best. I post for my LGBTQ church family who worship God along side me each Sunday at Highland Baptist. And I post for my dear friend and talented singer who died way to early because he couldn’t tell his church family that he was gay for fear of their rejection.
I post hoping to make a difference. I post hoping that the love of GOD breaks through hardened hearts and we realize that we are all God’s children, diverse and proud of who God created us to be. Where would this world be without the gifted and talented members of the LGBTQ community who bring such beautiful gifts to our lives?
Many have a deep faith in the same God as you do. We all want to be loved just as we are, without having to hide who we are and who God made us to be.
And, I post for the parents of LGBTQ-plus who fear their children will be abused in this world.
Yes, I post proudly for PRIDE and will throughout the year for all these children of God.
I believe God is big enough and generous enough to share the rainbow and celebrate the diversity of his children.
Brendan Fay (centre) pictured during the 2024 Queer Liberation March in New York last Sunday.
By Brendan Fay
Drogheda and Ireland’s gay ambassador in New York, Brendan Fay, the man who founded the Irish LGBTQ group Lavender and Green Alliance – Muintir Aerach na hÉireann after fleeing the repressive laws in his native country in the nineties, has written this report on the organisation’s 30th anniversary.
On Sunday last, June 30th, the Irish LGBTQ group Lavender and Green Alliance – Muintir Aerach na hÉireann celebrated Pride by joining the 2024 Queer Liberation March. Our 30th anniversary theme and message is “Éirimid Amach le Chéile -We rise and come out together.”
Mindful of the recent anti-gay and transgender slurs from Pope Francis and the Vatican as well a repeat of the ban on openly gay men from seminary or ordination we began the morning at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with a witness for Pride Sunday.
At the Cathedral steps I was with my spouse Tom who I met at a Dignity Mass in 1996 and Maya Milton, transgender organizer whose family come from Dublin. We held images of two friends who were inspiring and courageous gay priests Fr. John McNeill (1925-2015) and Fr Mychal Judge of 9/11 (1933-2001). In 1976 Fr McNeill wrote the book “The Church and the Homosexual” and came out as a gay priest. Fr Mychal Judge became known as the priest to call during the AIDS crisis.
We also held an image of Stanley and Kathleen Rygor with their son Robert. A leader in ACT UP Robert died from AIDS related illness in January 1994. Stanley (1926 – 2019) was popular in traditional Irish music circles in New York and sang in his parish choir for over 20 years. Kathleen (1929 – 2021) from Birr, Co. Offaly was outspoken as the mother of a gay son. I am currently working on a documentary film telling their story.
While welcoming the apology of Pope Francis, there is an urgent need for a more honest and open conversation in the Catholic Church and society. As LGBTQ communities honour Pride events in 2024 we are aware that in several countries people are suffering in silence, enduring harsh sentences, imprisonment, torture and threat of death because of their gender or sexual orientation. There is a lot more work needed to protect LGBTQ rights and stem the rise of anti LGBTQ prejudice here and in Ireland. We need stories to heal, give hope and raise awareness.
The Irish LGBTQ group then headed downtown, negotiated a labyrinth of police barricades and unfurled our banner at 15 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. This was the site of the LGBTQ Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop founded in 1967 by gay pioneer Craig Rodwell. Irish artist and writer Krissy Mahan greeted the group from across the street with a T- shirt in Irish, “Saoirse don Phalaistín”.
Lavender and Green Alliance joined the Queer Liberation March at Sheridan Square close to the Stonewall Inn and site of the LGBTQ uprising of June 1969. Some of the group held images of friends and pioneers of the LGBTQ community as well as rainbow coloured BRÓD (Irish for pride) signs with images of the postage stamps issued by the Irish Post Office honouring the Irish LGBTQ movement. Michael Kane, wearing a t-shirt with a map of Ireland in rainbow colors, said it meant a lot to him to carry the image of Fr. Mychal Judge who died on 9/11.
Along 7th Avenue seeing our banner, ‘Lavender and Green Alliance / Muintir Aerach na hÉireann celebrating Irish Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, Heritage and Identity’ people photographed us saying how proud they were of Ireland’s global leadership on LGBTQ human rights. Others highlighted Ireland’s outspoken leadership for human rights in Palestine and Ukraine. We join the global call for a ceasefire in Palestine, freeing of hostages and access to urgently needed food and medicine.
Brendan Fay at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York with his spouse Tom and transgender organiser Maya Milton from Dublin.
A New York Pride gathering is also where long-time activist friends meet. Gay community legend Randy Wicker, an organizer in the 60s, has been a supporter of Lavender and Green Alliance joining us in many St. Patrick’s parades. Someone came to tell of his friendship and shared kayaking with Belfast gay activist Tarlach MacNiallais (1962-2020).
Another thanked us for years of campaigning for inclusion in the St Patrick’s Parades on Fifth Avenue and the outer boroughs. Young people out for the first time came to speak of being proud to be Irish and the gift of accepting parents and friends.
We told stories of Malachy McCourt’s support for Lavender and Green through the years. Veterans of ACT UP remembered Robert Rygor and his leadership during the AIDS crisis. As the group marched downtown to Battery Park texts came in from Donegal LGBTQ community leader Jen McCarron congratulating us on our 30 years of community advocacy.
Maya Milton who lives in the Bronx said, “I’m Irish American. I’m transgender and I am glad to be an organizer with Lavender and Green Alliance. When we are out and proud we can inspire others to be themselves and live their lives.”
Pride is a time of human solidarity and community when LGBTQ persons come out of closets of silence, rise in anger and hope from our second-class status, remember friends, lovers and pioneers who have gone before us and experience the empowerment, fun and joy of belonging to a global movement for change.
