An American priest has been removed from office after allowing a provocative and gory music video by a popular American singer to be filmed at his church in Brooklyn, New York.
“Rest in peace, bitch,” singer and Disney actress Sabrina Carpenter says in the opening seconds of the video on one of the pastel-colored coffins placed at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. “The Telegraph” reported on Sunday.
“Scandalized,” the Brooklyn Diocese didn’t hold back, removing Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, ordained in 1995, from his duties after the American priest allowed the starlet to frolic in his church for her last-ever video musical, which scored more than 11, according to the British newspaper received several million views within three weeks.
In the images we see the singer, dressed in a very short black tulle dress, in false mourning after witnessing the bloody and exaggerated deaths of several suitors with questionable behavior.
However, when the priest apologized and pointed out that he had accepted the filming “in an effort to further strengthen the bond” between the church and the young artists, his superiors considered it inexcusable that he did not follow the guidelines The diocese had held filming in churches, including “a review of the scenes and the script,” the organization wrote in a statement.
“I agreed to the filming after a general search of the artist involved revealed nothing of concern […] “The parish staff and I did not know that there were provocative gestures in the church,” added the priest, who was also not on site during the filming.
After the alleged desecration, Bishop Robert Brennan conducted a “reparation ceremony” on site, the British media company reported.
The church’s $5,000 in compensation for the filming was donated to a crisis pregnancy center in New York so that this “negative event could impact life support,” according to The Telegraph.