Sacrilege in the Cathedral: How St. Patrick’s Was Set Up

F or humanists, the purpose of a funeral is to memorialize life. For Catholics, the point is to pray for the deceased’s soul — and at the subsequent reception, to reminisce. For some transgender activists, the point is apparently to create a political spectacle to embarrass your enemies.

On February 15, St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral in New York hosted the funeral of Cecilia Gentili, a transgender activist and prostitute from Argentina.

Though “America’s Parish Church” is not the most obvious place to have the funeral of a self-professed atheist whose life was spent in open contradiction to the church’s teachings — stranger things have happened. Gentili was a baptized Catholic and the state of his soul at the point of death is known only to God. If someone requests a Catholic funeral on behalf of a baptized Catholic, the cathedral tries to accommodate this, regardless of whether the deceased was a parishioner, had any connection to the parish, or was a Catholic in good standing. This was their approach, though it may now change.

“Mourning a Transgender Activist at a Cathedral That Once Drew Protests,” read the New York Times headline; the reporter characterized the event as “both a celebration of [Gentili’s] life and an exuberant piece of political theater.” (A Catholic funeral is, of course, neither.) Funeral attendees were wearing “glittery miniskirts and halter tops, fishnet stockings, sumptuous fur stoles and at least one boa sewed from what appeared to be $100 bills. Mass cards and a picture near the altar showed a haloed Ms. Gentili surrounded by the Spanish words for ‘transvestite,’ ‘whore,’ ‘blessed,’ and ‘mother’ above the text of Psalm 25.”

At the prayers of the faithful, the reader asked for divine intervention for “life-affirming healthcare” for transgender people, which was met with cheers and applause. Conventional Catholic responses, “Thanks be to God” or the Our Father, were evidently said only by the cathedral’s two priests. At one point, a congregant shouted “Ave Cecilia” during the “Ave Maria” and danced wildly down the nave. During the eulogy, Gentili’s friends referred to the deceased as a “great whore” and “St. Cecilia, the mother of all whores.” The congregation responded with a standing ovation.

As you might imagine, some Catholics had a different response. The rector at St. Patrick’s, Reverend Enrique Salvo, issued the following statement:

Thanks to so many who have let us know they share our outrage over the scandalous behavior at a funeral here at St. Patrick’s Cathedral earlier this week. The Cathedral only knew that family and friends were requesting a funeral Mass for a Catholic, and had no idea our welcome and prayer would be degraded in such a sacrilegious and deceptive way. That such a scandal occurred at “America’s Parish Church” makes it worse; that it took place as Lent was beginning, the annual forty–day struggle with the forces of sin and darkness, is a potent reminder of how much we need the prayer, reparation, repentance, grace, and mercy to which this holy season invites us.

At the Cardinal’s directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation.

The narrative then flipped: Turns out the church still hates LGBT people! “New York Archdiocese denounces transgender activist’s funeral held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” read an Associated Press headline. “N.Y. Archdiocese condemns a trans activist Cecilia Gentili’s funeral,” headlined the Washington Post.

Ceyenne Doroshow, who helped organize the funeral, said that Gentili’s transgender status had been kept “under wraps” from the cathedral — for fear, as described by the Times, that the archdiocese would not host a funeral for a person it knew was transgender. The Times, meanwhile, reported that: “The day before the funeral, the archdiocese described the service as a routine event, even after it was informed by a reporter that Ms. Gentili was a transgender activist.”

In other words, the cathedral’s assent, and goodwill, disproved the purported fear. Gentili’s “identity” wouldn’t preclude him from receiving a Catholic requiem.

Let’s consider intentions. Why, exactly, have a Catholic funeral for a renowned atheist who spent his life publicly advocating for causes contrary to the church? This is a question the Washington Post thought to ask the funeral’s organizer, but seemingly the cathedral did not.

“The immediate reason was her ongoing confliction with the church and how the church perceives and treats us as a people,” Doroshow told the Post. “And for somebody who had been fighting church, religion and state almost her whole life, it was fitting, for me, to make that happen.”

After the funeral, Gentili’s family put it more explicitly, saying the funeral brought “precious life and radical joy to the Cathedral in historic defiance of the Church’s hypocrisy and anti-trans hatred” (emphasis added).

In other words, theirs was not a gesture of reconciliation (as has naïvely been suggested) but rebellion. The organizers wanted an irreverent pagan funeral in a sacred Catholic space. The inevitable result, when they got what they wanted, was sacrilege.

It seems the cathedral staff acted in good faith but were slow to respond when warning signs emerged. The deceased’s status as a public opponent of the church combined with St. Patrick’s high profile should have spelled to them scandal in giant red letters.

By the time the cathedral priests confronted the problem, there was very little they could do. A thousand congregants were inside the church. At the last minute, the priests opted to forgo the Liturgy of the Eucharist, realizing that much of the congregation was likely not Catholic, and presumably saving the cathedral from a far graver sacrilege.

It was obviously a mistake to allow eulogies (which many consider inappropriate at Catholic funerals and better reserved for receptions), though cathedral staff likely agreed to this in advance. It was also wrong for the presiding priest to use female pronouns in the prayers for Gentili, though it was likely more the result of awkwardness than any ideological commitment to transgenderism.

Whatever the cathedral staff might have done differently on the day would have been too little, too late. Some have noted that canon law states, “Unless they gave some signs of repentance before death,” certain people “must be deprived of ecclesiastical funerals.” A public funeral for a high-profile, lifelong opponent of the church (with no known conversion) at the most famous Catholic parish in the country was imprudent, to say the least. A private Mass could have been offered instead.

It is a safe assumption that every deceased Catholic is a sinner in need of prayers. But what is not a safe assumption is that every person who requests a Catholic funeral does so because he wishes to receive what the church offers.