Certain leftist actions speak louder than words or manifestos. They mark history by their radicalness and intensity. They are designed to fascinate and mesmerize the public and prepare the way for eventual acceptance.
American Catholics are recovering from the shock of one of these nefarious acts. It involves a scandalous and sacrilegious funeral held for an atheist LGBTQ activist in the highly symbolic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
The funeral service united a thousand LGBTQ activists and sympathizers in the cathedral’s central nave to remember a notorious prostitute and transgender activist who called himself “Cecilia Gentili,” living under the illusion that he was a woman.
Amid the confusion, three facts stand out.
The Cathedral Was the Scene of Sacrilege
First, this was not a religious service since Gentili professed no religion. There can be no doubt that St. Patrick’s Cathedral was the scene of deliberately choreographed sacrilege by activists who saw the proceedings as what The New York Times called “an event with no likely precedent in Catholic history” and “an exuberant piece of political theater.”
This was an organized event with invitations that gathered large numbers. The macabre scene resembled a Drag Queen Show as extravagantly and immorally dressed attendees parodied a Catholic funeral service. It could not have been more offensive to God and everything sacred. It was as if all hell had broken loose to find ways of subjecting the Church to mockery.
Nothing was done to hide what happened. Videos from the funerals show the crowd shouting out a reference to Gentili as “this whore. This great whore. Saint Cecilia, Mother of all Whores!”
Sign Now! Sacrilege Inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral Calls for Public Reparation
During the service, blasphemous prayer petitions for “access to gender-affirming health care” were made to God. A participant interrupted the cathedral cantor’s Ave Maria hymn with an Ave Cecilia one while dancing in the aisle. There was celebration of the homosexual or transgender lifestyle. There was no mention of sin.
For the duration of the ceremony, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral became the platform for blasphemy, sacrilege and hatred for Church teaching. Once started, there was no attempt to hinder the outrage.
Complicity among the Clergy
The second fact is that there was complicity on the part of the clergy involved in the ceremony. Other Church figures also voiced their approval for the scandal.
As the full extent of the blasphemy became public, the Communications Office of St. Patrick’s Cathedral claimed that “it 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 Cardinal directed that “an appropriate Mass of Reparation” be offered. Thus, the matter was considered settled.
However, the two priests, Fr. Edward Dougherty and Fr. Andrew King, who were assigned by the Cathedral to officiate at the Catholic mock funeral service, encouraged the participants in their acts, joking with them and eulogizing Gentili as a woman.
The funeral enjoyed the unsurprising support of Fr. James Martin, who sent a message before the event saying, “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.”
Sign Now! Sacrilege Inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral Calls for Public Reparation
These and other messages show that complicity in the matter of the LGBTQ agenda finds support at all levels inside the Church. It is a tragic reflection of the crisis inside the Church.
No One Is Accountable
The final fact is that no one is being held accountable for the sacrilege and blasphemy. The two presiding priests are part of the cathedral staff. The same cathedral directive that ordered a Mass of reparation will do nothing to punish those who presided over the outrage.
The LGBTQ movement that organized the travesty will likewise not be called to task for holding the service in what St. Patrick Cathedral’s Media Office terms “America’s Parish Church.”
Nothing short of staff dismissals, penance, and a reconsecration of the cathedral is proportional to the outrage. The lack of accountability reflects a theological position that views things as if sin does not exist. All things must be allowed despite the horrible scandal. There is no concern for scandal or the salvation of souls.
The funeral was a symbolic response from the LGBTQ lobby to the massive reaction of those resisting the recent Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans encouraging the blessing of homosexual pairs.
Rather than being intimidated by the homosexual insult, faithful Catholics need to redouble their resistance, calling out those who push this evil inside the Church and offering public protest and reparation.
The perpetrators of these sacrileges and blasphemies, and their enablers, will ultimately be held accountable by God, Who judges all. “Be not deceived. God is not mocked” (Gal. 6:7).
Photo Credit: © franciscorivasbixio – stock.adobe.com