You know, I wonder how Catholics would feel if a vigilante group started data mining to investigate women who take the Pill or use other forms of contraceptives. Pretty good data shows that Catholic women in the United States are as likely as other women in the United States to use artificial birth control. Technically, that should make those Catholic women ineligible for most sacraments and from participation in the full life of the Church.

Yet we don't (so far) see the "sin patrol" digging into their privacy by analyzing app data.

We sure do see it, though, when Catholic vigilantes dig into social media to report LGBTQ Catholics who work for the Church. I can't count how many articles I've read lately about how some same-sex-married teacher or music director got fired because somebody reported that to the bishop.

Is that sort of "tattling" scandalous in the Catholic sense of scandal as sin?

I think it is.

I also ask myself why anyone would be motivated to seek out spiritual succor by joining a Church full of sin-sniffing snitches.

Maybe that's a question Catholic vigilantes should be asking themselves.