The Archdiocese of New York has 2.8 million believers and 296 parishes in ten counties (Putnam, Bronx, Dutchess, Orange, Manhattan, Sullivan, Westchester, Ulster, Staten Island, Rockland). A number of churches in the archdiocese are LGBT-friendly, meaning more flexible on rights compared to the Vatican Dicastery's positions on doctrine.
St. Patrick's Cathedral, a neo-Gothic gem by James Renwick (architect of the Smithsonian and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington) on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets, right in front of Rockefeller Center, is not one of the most progressive churches ; That's why the funeral of a transgender, prostitute and immigrant rights activist sparked inevitable controversy.
Last Thursday, the Archdiocese explains, the cathedral was “persuaded” to host a funeral that was considered “sacrilegious”: they did not know that the funeral was that of Cecilia Gentili, an Argentine native who was illegally buried in 2000 immigrated to the United States, from incarceration for prostitution in Rikers Island prison to an important role as an activist in New York's LGBT community (even the state's governor, Kathy Hochul, had tweeted her sadness over Gentili's death), author and actress. Vogue had sent the great photographer Ryan McGinley to the funeral and published the pictures on their website. Title of the long news article: “The matriarchal legacy of Cecilia Gentili.”
The Rev. Enrique Salvo, parish priest of St. Patrick, wrote on the archdiocese website: “Thank you to all the people, and there are many who let us know that they share our outrage at the scandalous behavior that has taken place over a year .” Funeral here at St. Patrick's Cathedral earlier this week. The cathedral only knew that family and friends wanted a funeral mass for a person of the Catholic faith and had no idea that our welcome and prayers would be denigrated in such a sacrilegious and fraudulent manner. The fact that such a scandal occurred in the “Parish of America” makes the situation worse – especially during Lent. Salvo guaranteed that a mass of reparation would be celebrated (according to canon law, the penitential rite aims to heal a “gravely harmful act” committed in a place sacred to the faithful).
What exactly is the “scandal” that sparked such a strong reaction and the decision to resort to reparations to heal anti-faith outrage?
The problem is not so much that, according to Ceyenne Doroshow, Trans Black Lives Matter activist and organizer of the funeral, Gentili was an atheist and the choice of Saint Patrick was based on the simple fact that the cathedral is “an icon,” and she was an icon.
The problem is that it was inevitable that even more traditional Catholics would be disturbed by the imaginative clothing (miniskirts, fishnet stockings, colorful tops) of some (the church was objectively full, more than a thousand people, as the priest also noted with pleasure). Signs such as “Santa Cecilia, la madre de todos las putas”, i.e. “Santa Cecilia, mother of all whores”, and the dances in the central nave and the traditional photo of the deceased at the foot of the altar with a halo over his head and the words “Transvestite “, “whore”, “blessed” and “mother” above the text of Psalm XXV.
In addition, the psalm can be freely consulted by everyone, Catholic and lay, LGBT and heterosexual, on paper or digitally: “Remember not the sins of my youth: remember me in your mercy, for your goodness, O Lord.”