The funeral of a renowned transgender activist in a New York cathedral led to a denunciation of the event by a senior church official, who called the mass a scandal within one of the most prominent houses of worship in American Catholicism.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York condemned the funeral of Cecilia Gentili, which took place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and drew a large crowd on Thursday.
Gentili was known as a leading advocate for other transgender people, as well as sex workers and people living with HIV. A post on her Instagram account announced her death on February 6 at the age of 52.
In a written statement released Saturday, the Rev. Enrique Salvo, pastor of Saint Patrick’s, thanked people who he said informed the church that they “share our outrage at the outrageous behavior” at the funeral.
“The cathedral only knew that family and friends were requesting a funeral mass for a Catholic, and had no idea that our reception and prayer would be degraded in such a sacrilege and deceitful manner,” Salvo said in the statement.
The cathedral held a Restoration Mass after the funeral at the behest of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, Salvo said.
“That such a scandal has occurred at ‘America’s Parish Church’ makes it even worse; that it occurred as Lent began, the annual forty-day battle with the forces of sin and darkness, is a powerful reminder of how much we need the prayer, restoration, repentance, grace and mercy to which this holy season invites us, ” he said.
She was a former sex worker who suffered from addiction and was imprisoned on Rikers Island. She became coordinator of a transgender health program, nonprofit policy director for an established gay men’s health organization, GMHC, and lobbyist for health equity and anti-discrimination legislation, among other causes. advocacy work.
Gentili founded the COIN Clinic, short for Cecilia’s Occupational Inclusion Network, a free health program for sex workers through the community health organization Callen-Lorde in New York.
“New York’s LGBTQ+ community has lost a champion in trans icon Cecilia Gentili,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after Gentili’s death.
Gentili starred in the FX television series “Pose,” about the underground ballroom dance scene in the 1980s and 1990s. She also performed two one-woman shows.
“I’m an atheist, but I always ask God for things,” Gentili said on “Red Ink,” her autobiographical show about topics such as her childhood in Argentina and a lack of religious faith.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, an architectural and tourist landmark in Manhattan, has been the site of funerals for numerous prominent New Yorkers, including Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Babe Ruth and first responders who died in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
Videos of Gentili’s funeral Mass show an audience estimated at more than 1,000 celebrants, including transgender people and other friends and supporters, chanting her name, clapping, singing and praising her status as a leading light of the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
“Except for Easter Sunday, we don’t really have a good crowd,” said Father Edward Dougherty, who presided over the mass.
Conservative group CatholicVote condemned fellow “Pose” actor Billy Porter, whose singing performance at the funeral was characterized by the group as a mockery of the “Our Father” prayer. “This is just unbelievable and sick,” CatholicVote said on X.
In a statement before the song, Porter called Gentili a leader among “an entire community of people who changed my life forever.”
“Sadness is unique, it is individual. Please know that however you grieve, it is okay,” Porter said. “There is no right or wrong way to grieve. But make sure that you do that, you allow yourself to do that, so that we can get to the other side of something that feels a little bit like grace.
