''The Pillar'' is an American news website focusing on the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The site's stated mission is to "do serious, responsible, sober journalism about the Church, from the Church, and for the Church." The site was founded in 2021 by two journalist canon lawyers: J.D. Flynn, former editor-in-chief of

Catholic News Agency The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is a private institution of EWTN that provides news related to the Catholic Church to the global anglophone audience. Founded in 2004 as the English section of the worldwide ACI Group, it is headquartered in Denver ...

and former

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

of the

Archdiocese of Denver The Archdiocese of Denver ( la, Archidiœcesis Denveriensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church that encompasses northern Colorado. It is part of the XIII Conference Region and includes 113 parishes, 3 ...

, and Ed Condon, former Washington, D.C., bureau editor of the Catholic News Agency.

Publication history

Notable pieces published by the site include a March 2021 story on the financial impact to parishes around the country due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

shutdowns, and a July 2021 story which reported on cell phone location data which showed Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, the top administrator of the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...

, had frequented gay bars and the

Grindr Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application targeted towards members of the gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009 an ...

app. Burrill resigned from the USCCB after The Pillar notified the USCCB that it was going to publish the story. The site's methods of obtaining Burrill's location history were legal, but raised

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

concerns. In a

Religion News Service Religion News Service (RNS) is a news agency covering religion, ethics, spirituality and moral issues. It publishes news, information, and commentaries on faiths and religious movements to newspapers, magazines, broadcast organizations and religio ...

column appearing in the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

,'' theology professor

Steven P. Millies Steven P. Millies (born 1972) is an author and political theorist, and currently professor of public theology and director of The Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, IL. Before joining CTU in 2017, Millies held the Strom Thu ...

wrote that the Pillar "must not have thought about the Code of Canon Law" and "The Pillar’s investigators paid little heed also to the canons of ethics for journalists". Others, including Matthew Hennessey of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', dismissed allegations of homophobic intent while applauding the reporting with a favorable comparison it to similar phone data-based reporting by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

References

External links

Official website
2021 establishments in the United States Online magazines published in the United States Political magazines published in the United States Internet properties established in 2021 {{Catholic-media-stub