CV NEWS FEED // After a group of LGBTQ activists used deception to hold a raucous “funeral” for a deceased “trans” activist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, CatholicVote pledged to stand firm against anti-Catholicism.
“This is not the last you will hear of this,” vowed CatholicVote President Brian Burch.
“At what point do Catholics wake up and realize that if we can’t stand up to this, it’s only going to get worse?” Burch asked. “There must be consequences or we will see the mockery and desecration of our churches expanding everywhere.”
CatholicVote wrote on social media Saturday:
Two full days have gone by since a group of anti-Catholic trans activists openly desecrated the Christian faith at a place of worship.
Why haven’t any leaders addressed anti-Christian hate?
Why has devout Joe Biden remained silent?
Why is the Corporate Media celebrating?
As CatholicVote reported Friday:
On Thursday, February 15, a crowd of LGBTQ activists held a funeral for Cecilia Gentili at the historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, New York. Gentili was “a transgender activist and actress, former sex worker and self-professed atheist,” according to the New York Times.
The Pillar noted that the event “packed the cathedral with more than 1,000 mourners, many of them LGBT activists or presenting themselves as transgender.”
The Pillar continued:
The funeral service, which was not a Mass, drew criticism after a eulogy described the deceased as a “great whore, St. Cecilia, the mother of all whores,” and after a rendition of “Ave Maria” sung during the liturgy was interrupted by a mourner who shouted “Ave Cecilia,” and danced down the aisle.
The LGBTQ leader who organized the event openly admitted that he deliberately deceived the cathedral staff in order to ensure the gathering could take place in the Catholic house of worship.
Again from CatholicVote:
Ceyenne Doroshow organized the funeral and said he did not mention Gentili’s “transgender” identity when he planned the funeral with the church.
“I kind of kept it under wraps,” Doroshow said, according to the Times. Doroshow explained that Gentili’s friends “had wanted the service to be at St. Patrick’s because ‘it is an icon, just like her.’”
Outreach founder Fr. James Martin, SJ, initially praised the event, calling it “wonderful.”
“To celebrate the funeral Mass of a transgender woman at St. Patrick’s is a powerful reminder, during Lent, that L.G.B.T.Q. people are as much a part of the church as anyone else,” Martin told the Times. The paper quoted him in its Thursday article about the funeral.
>> FR. JAMES MARTIN’S ‘OUTREACH’: A CLOSER LOOK <<
Two days later, Martin walked back his original remarks.
“The comments … were given before the service, and assuming that St. Patrick’s Cathedral had approved the service, which seemed like a compassionate gesture towards the deceased’s family and friends,” Martin wrote in an X post Saturday.
“And I also assumed, based on the fact that the service was being held in St. Patrick’s, that Ms. Gentili was a believer, which according to [the Times], she was not,” added Martin.
Fr. Enrique Salvo, the pastor of St. Patrick’s, slammed the event in a Friday statement.
“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 wrote.
>> FR. JAMES MARTIN BACKPEDALS AFTER PRAISING ‘TRANS’ FUNERAL <<
CatholicVote noted Martin’s apparent change of tune on Saturday.
“[Martin] is now apologizing for his praise of the blasphemous service held at St Patrick’s Cathedral,” CatholicVote wrote on X the same day. “The trans activists that organized this stunt must likewise apologize to Catholics of NY and Catholics everywhere.”
Other Catholics also took to X to react to Martin’s apparent attempt to backpedal.
“So he knew,” Catholic writer Emily Zanotti said of Martin. “Also, for next time, Google the deceased.”
A Carmelite friar and priest also weighed in.
“Fr. James has been talking for years about building bridges,” he wrote:
However he regularly leaves out that a bridge is built by starting construction on both sides of the river. What was shown was one foundation, being built, and extending itself out while the other was not.
The sophistry in his thread is again disappointing. Also the lack of prudence, making comments on an event before the event happened so it was ready for a big national newspaper is astounding to me. Ideologies over reality I suppose. Pope Francis warned us about that in EG.
A Catholic mother and blogger pressed Martin to explicitly condemn the funeral service.
“This is a teaching moment now that you know, again, lies were told, descrations made, protest made & other atrocities,” she stated. “Are you going to condemn these acts or not?”
Another Catholic user replied to the pro-LGBTQ priest:
The Church is a welcoming Mother, and has always been. In this case this welcome was exploited by those who hate her for preaching the Way, the Truth and Life. If the despicable actions at this funeral were merely disrespectful, there would not be no need for a Mass of Reparation.
Bethel McGrew, PhD, called the funeral service a “brilliant piece of political theater.”
“This gushy NYT story quotes a family member who’s proud they sprung this all on the cathedral, allowing them to think Gentili was a Catholic and keeping his trans identity ‘under wraps,’” she noted. “The cathedral was chosen because it’s a big stage, and this was theater.”
“One can say this much for Cecilia Gentili,” McGrew added. “At least he was honest enough to be an atheist. Others, not so much.”
