Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 17, 2024 / 13:56 pm (CNA).
The pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City says the church has offered a Mass of Reparation after a controversial irreverent funeral service was held there this week for a well-known transgender advocate.
The Manhattan cathedral hosted the Feb. 15 funeral service for Cecilia Gentili, an activist who helped to decriminalize sex work in New York, lobbied for “gender identity” to be added as a protected class to the state’s human rights laws, and was a major fundraiser for transgender causes. Gentili was a man who identified as a woman.
Throughout the liturgy, the presider, Father Edward Dougherty, referred to Gentili with feminine pronouns and described the trans-identifying man as “our sister.” Additionally, during the prayers of the faithful, the reader prayed for so-called gender-affirming health care, while attendees frequently and approvingly referred to Gentili as the “mother of whores.”
On Saturday, Rev. Enrique Salvo, the pastor of St. Patrick’s, said in a statement on the website of the Archdiocese of New York that Church officials shared in the “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,” Salvo said.
“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,” the priest wrote.
“At [Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s] directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation,” Salvo said.
Several mainstream media outlets had framed the event as a breakthrough occasion and a sign of the Catholic Church shifting its teaching — or at least its tone — on sexuality and human anthropology.
Time magazine described the fact that a funeral service for a trans activist was held in a Catholic cathedral as “no small feat,” while The New York Times described the service as “an exuberant piece of political theater.”
Organizers reportedly did not disclose to the cathedral that Gentili, who died Feb. 6 at age 52, was a biological man who identified as a woman.
“I kept it under wraps,” Ceyeye Doroshow, the service’s organizer, told The New York Times.
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Mass of reparation….have fr rippinger back [he was just there] to exercise the building and rededicate it…and remove the faculties of the priest…[who may need an exorcism himself…]
There are reports that the Mass of Reparation does reconsecrate the cathedral, despite the official statement from its pastor not making that clear. Example: this story at The Postmillennial:
NYC Cathedral offers official Mass of Reparation to reconsecrate St Patrick’s after outcry over trans activist funeral
Yes! That would be a fantastic move!
Now will the Archdiocese rewrite its policies, which seem to allow congregants to take control of liturgies, so that such a scandal cannot reoccur?
As long as eulogizing is allowed at a funeral, rather than being limited to a non-church wake where it belongs, we’ll see such scandals continuing. This one is only more egregious than what is common.
In our parish you/someone in family have/has to generally be a member for a funeral; there’s quite a few where there’s a service at the funeral home/graveside if they’ve fallen away. A priest or deacon usually presides.
Is this somehow following the recent ‘blessings are okay’ directive?
Why does the secular world want to use our facilities for such strange events or videotaping for “artists” that also happened recently?
The decision to do this outrageous blasphemy was given permission for Dolan, he should resign immediately! But this just shows how diabolical the LGBTQ crowd are! They want things like this to show contempt to the Church and her Sacraments, since they are totally dedicated to the world, the flesh and the devil!!!
Doesn’t the priest or the funeral home, presumably in accord with the parish, meet with the family to plan the funeral – the visitation, the procession, the readings, the hymns, etc.?
Was this person a parishioner? Can anybody just walk in off the street and demand a “celebration of life”?
Rev. Salvo says that they “didn’t know” what these people had planned.
I for one DON’T believe that, and, if it IS true – there is NO excuse for their ignorance.
You cannot “request “a funeral mass. Money has to change hands. How much did it cost to sell catholic values?????
Who paid? Who accepted the payment without proper vetting?
Deep connections have to be involved.
A “sorry” mass cannot be the end of it!
I imagine that Cardinal Dolan himself approved the service in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Perhaps he thought that it would be more “normal” than it turned out? Well, I think that he must be embarrassed about the whole thing now. Does he owe an apology to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York? It might be wise to do so.
Fr. Edward is the culprit who encouraged, profane, and participated in the sacrilegious mass. He was the celebrant, leader, and shepherd leading all these folks into grave egregious mortal sin. Father Edward Dougherty must be admonished appropriately to his actions.
Or was this clandestinely approved by the Vatican for a fellow countrymen from Argentina?
Are the “wild beasts” located in the Vatican?
Tragic and unnecessary failure to protect the faithful
Matthew 23:9-11 KJV And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Incredibly irreverent. Somebody of note took payment for this charade, without regard to what planned intentions were.
Why didn’t the celebrant of the funeral mass put a stop to it when he saw what was happening?? And why has Cardinal Dolan not made a public statement and apology to Catholics in the US? It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remain a faithful Catholic in light of what’s been going on since Covid. The church did nothing and continues to marginalize the faithful while applauding the radicals.
I read elsewhere that where as the original plan was for a mass, during the “celebration” the director of liturgy saw what was going on and informed the presiding priest to limit it to a simple service instead of a mass. I hope that was the case. Inappropriate regardless.
I cannot understand how this was allowed to continue throughout its entirety. This should have been stopped at the first mention or sight of anything subversive. Throughout all of these videos I kept wondering the same thing, ‘why is the presiding authority not demanding cessation and those taking part out of the church?’ Let us all pray for the intercession of the saints of the past who fought heresy without fear and stood face to face against those who persecuted them. Mother Mary, pray for us!
It’s important to note that this sacrilege is the direct result of Bergoglio’s apostatic directive, ‘Sfiducia Supplicans.’
I fear we have a pope who is in the service of an unholy spirit.
We read: “’At [Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s] directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation,’ Salvo said. [AND] Several mainstream media outlets had framed the event as a breakthrough occasion and a sign of the Catholic Church shifting its teaching — or at least its tone — on sexuality and human anthropology.”
Reparation after the fact? What about foresight and guardianship?
Yours truly recalls a high cleric from New York who confided (on EWTN) about endorsing Obama Care only to find six months later that the conscientious objection clause had been deleted. “They lied to me,” he said. Of course!!! Why is it that pious clerics are the last to notice in advance the web of mendacity in a fallen world?
Happily, about “tone,” we now see what we need from continental Africa and and many other points of surviving coherence across the globe, but from the inner circle what do we still get: a “tone” that is out of tune, a “blessing” that is not a blessing, a “couple” that is not a couple, a doctrinally “universal Church” that in practice is not universal, and likely endorsement from a “synod” that is not a synod…
Instead, this: “When Jesus sent His disciples out into the world which was full of the ambushes of evil, He told them, ‘Be ye therefore, wise as serpents and simple as doves’ (Mt 10:16). By mentioning the two virtues, prudence and simplicity, together, He clearly shows that they must never be separated from one another, nor should one be used as a pretext for failing in the other” (Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD, “Divine Intimacy,” 1964/1996).
Given the insidiousness of evil and even infiltration into the Church, needed training for bishops might well include a seminar on Mt. 10:16 and counterinsurgency.
CARDINAL DOLAN MUST MAKE A PUBLIC STATEMENT OIF REPENTANCE AND RECOMMITMENT