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The Pillar
Type	Online news magazine
Founder(s)	JD Flynn; Ed Condon;
Editor-in-chief	JD Flynn
Editor	Ed Condon
Managing editor	Michelle La Rosa
Founded	January 4, 2021; 4 years ago
Language	English
Website	pillarcatholic.com

The Pillar is an American news website focusing on the Catholic Church. The site was founded in 2021.

The website was founded by two journalist canon lawyers: JD Flynn, former editor-in-chief of Catholic News Agency and former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Denver; and Ed Condon, former Washington, D.C., bureau editor of Catholic News Agency.

Background

JD Flynn is an American canon lawyer. He grew up in New Jersey and attended Franciscan University of Steubenville for undergraduate and received a JCL from Catholic University of America. He formerly worked as chancellor for the Archdiocese of Denver, special assistant to Bishop James D. Conley in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, and editor-in-chief of Catholic News Agency. He has three children, two of whom are adopted with special needs.^[1]

Ed Condon is a British-American canon lawyer who received his JCD from Catholic University of America. Condon previously worked as the DC editor of the Catholic News Agency and an associate editor of the Catholic Herald. Prior to his work in Catholic spheres, he worked in politics in the United Kingdom.^[2]

As co-workers at Catholic News Agency, Flynn and Condon hosted the popular CNA Editor's Desk podcast.^[3] In December 2020, Flynn and Condon announced their departure from Catholic News Agency, citing personal and family reasons, and launched The Pillar on January 4, 2021.^[4]^[5]

Publication

The Pillar publishes news, analyses, and interviews on Catholic news topics in the United States and worldwide, including Vatican finances, clerical sexual abuse, China–Holy See relations, the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, and general Catholic news topics. The site is free but subscription-supported. Some content, such as certain podcast bonus episodes and the Starting Seven, are only accessible to paying subscribers.^[6]

The Pillar uses Substack and publishes two weekly newsletters on Tuesday and Friday containing summaries of the new articles published during the week. Flynn and Condon also host a weekly podcast self-described as "great Catholic conversation" wherein they discuss the news of the week.^[7] Europe editor Luke Coppen, former editor of the Catholic Herald, publishes a subscriber-only newsletter called Starting Seven containing the daily Vatican Press Bulletin, upcoming news to watch out for, and summaries of Catholic news of the day, including links to stories not necessarily published by the Pillar.

Notable coverage

Sexual abuse

The Pillar has covered numerous stories of alleged sexual abuse or coverup by members of the Church and bishops, including the cases of former diocesan bishops Richard Stika of Knoxville and Michael Hoeppner of Crookston and cases at Franciscan University of Steubenville.^[8]^[9]

Church finances

The Pillar has extensively covered Vatican finances, including the trial of former Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu and alleged mismanagement of CDF funds by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller.^[10]^[11]^[12] It has also covered American diocesan finances.^[13]

Clerical use of location-based dating apps

In July 2021, The Pillar published a story which reported on cell phone location data which showed that Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, the top administrator of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, had frequented gay bars and the Grindr app.^[14]

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 concerns.^[14] In a Religion News Service column appearing in The Washington Post, theology professor Steven P. Millies decried the investigation as "unethical, homophobic innuendo" and 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".^[15] Others, including Matthew Hennessey of The Wall Street Journal, dismissed allegations of homophobic intent while applauding the reporting with a favorable comparison to similar phone data-based reporting by The New York Times.^[16]

Later in 2021 The Pillar also reported that Vatican employees were using hookup apps within secure areas of the Vatican inaccessible to the public, which The Pillar called a diplomatic blackmail security risk. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of Holy See, met with Flynn and Condon to discuss the issue.^[17]

References

^ "Fostering a Culture of Life". National Review. January 30, 2019. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ "Ed Condon". Catholic Information Center. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2025.
^ "CNA Editor's Desk". Catholic News Agency. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ @jdflynn (January 4, 2021). "Announcing: The Pillar, a journalism project from @canonlawyered and JD Flynn" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ White, Christopher (December 31, 2020). "Top editors out at EWTN-owned Catholic News Agency". National Catholic Reporter. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2025.
^ "Starting Seven". The Pillar. September 26, 2024. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ "The Pillar Podcast". The Pillar. September 20, 2024. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ "New allegations charge Franciscan University abuse cover up". The Pillar. October 29, 2022. Archived from the original on September 28, 2024. Retrieved January 6, 2025.
^ "Pope accepts resignation of bishop who heads Minnesota's Crookston Diocese". Catholic Review. April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ Wimmer, AC (August 2, 2024). "Cardinal Müller rejects 'financial improprieties' allegation". Catholic News Agency. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ "Cardinal Gerhard Mũller Rejects and Contests Accusations of Poor Financial Management and Denounces Defamatory Attacks". ZENIT - English (in Spanish). August 11, 2024. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ "Vatican finances". The Pillar. September 20, 2024. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
^ Boorstein, Michelle; Faiola, Anthony; Pitrelli, Stefano (January 6, 2025). "Vatican names liberal San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy as new D.C. leader". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 6, 2025.
^ ^a ^b "Top U.S. Catholic Church official resigns after cellphone data used to track him on Grindr and to gay bars". The Washington Post. July 20, 2021. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
^ Millies, Steven P. "The Pillar investigation of Monsignor Burrill is unethical, homophobic innuendo". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
^ Hennessey, Matthew (August 2, 2021). "Catholic Journalists Expose a Scandal, and Liberals Scoff". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
^ Stack, Liam. "Catholic Officials on Edge After Reports of Priests Using Grindr". The New York Times. No. August 20, 2021. Archived from the original on July 24, 2024. Retrieved September 27, 2024.