NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown held a Mass of Reparation on Saturday following a funeral service on Thursday for transgender activist Cecilia Gentili at which church officials said mourners participated in “scandalous behavior.”
Pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Very Rev. Enrique Salvo, issued a statement following the service that condemned the funeral goers behavior and announced the Mass of Reparation, planned at the request of Cardinal Dolan.
“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,” the statement read.
Church officials have said that the issue with the funeral was the behavior of the large crowd, not the gender identity of the deceased. The condemned behavior included statements made in a Spanish eulogy, spoken out by a translator, that referred to Gentili as “Saint Cecilia, mother of all whores.”
The service drew more than 1,000 attendees who came to celebrate Gentili, an activist and actress who advocated for the rights of transgender people and sex workers. She died on Feb. 6 at the age of 52.
According to the presiding priest, Rev. Edward Dougherty, the number of mourners was a shock. “Except on Easter Sunday, we don’t really have a crowd that is this well turned out,” he said.
Gentili was an open atheist, something she explored in an off-Broadway one-woman show titled “Red Ink” last year.
“Religion is such a complicated issue for most queer and trans people. I used to go with my grandmother to the Baptist church, and they didn’t want me there. They made it very clear,” Gentili said in an interview with Interview magazine in November. “I used to go to the Catholic church, too, and both were such traumatic experiences for me as a queer person.”
“I came to identify as an atheist, but I know that so many trans people have been able to find a relationship with faith in spaces that include them,” Gentili continued.
Thursday’s mass was live streamed on the Trans Equity YouTube page and shows the mass of mourners, many of whom wore a broad range of high-fashion clothing.
Ceyenne Doroshow, the funeral’s organizer, said on Thursday that Gentili’s family kept her background “under wraps” for fear the archdiocese would refuse to host the funeral of a transgender person, according to the New York Times.
“Her heart and hands reached those the sanctimonious church continues to belittle, oppress and chastise,” Gentili’s family said in response to the archdiocese's condemnation. “The only deception present at St. Patrick’s Cathedral is that it claims to be a welcoming place for all.”
1010 WINS/WCBS 880 spoke with parishioners at Sunday’s mass about the controversy, and Brendan was open-minded about the service.
“Well I’d be sympathetic to anyone who comes to church in this day and age, with Catholicism being on the rocks,” Brendan said.
Another parishioner stated that funerals are meant to be solemn affairs, and said that “The people probably should have toned it down.”
“Pose” star Billy Porter was one of the funeral’s mourners, and he sang classic Gospel song “This Day” to honor Gentili.
“There’s no right or wrong way to grieve,” Porter said.
The Catholic Church continues to have a strained relationship with queer and transgender people, despite the Vatican’s October announcement that transgender people can be baptized and, in some cases, serve as godparents.